Kaito Kumon

"The weak are simply prey for the strong! That's why we need power.. the power to stand up against any foe, no matter how strong they are!"

- Kaito telling the reason why he and Kouta must become stronger

Kaito Kumon (駆紋 戒斗) is one of the main characters in the 24th installment of the Kamen Rider Series, Kamen Rider Gaim. He is the former leader of Team Baron, Team Gaim's rival until he chose Zack as his successor, and gave him a mass production Sengoku Driver as a parting gift. Growing up poor, he always believed that the weak warriors are exploited after Yggdrasill took everything from his life. After watching Gaim battle the Shika Inves, he received a Sengoku Driver as well and a Banana Lockseed from Sid, which allows him to transform into Kamen Rider Baron (仮面ライダーバロン). In Sengoku Movie Battle he was named Kamen Rider Bujin Baron (仮面ライダ武神バロン), but dropped it after Bujin Gaim's defeat.

Early Life
Kaito is the son of a construction worker. When businessmen from Yggdrasill Corporation shut down his father's company; Kaito and his family became poor, thus he had a vendetta against Yggdrasill and sought the power to destroy the company. In 2011, he formed a dance team called Team Baron with Zack and Peco.

Beat Riders Saga
As Team Gaim started to get popular with Kouta Kazuraba's possession of the Sengoku Driver, he finds himself with Sid, obtaining his own Sengoku Driver along with the Banana Lockseed. By accepting this new profound power, he also obtains the Lock Vehicle: Rose Attacker. Once realizing that plucking the fruits from the forest grants him an Lockseed, he creates his own alliance with Hideyasu Jonouchi and and Ryoji Hase, providing them with Lockseeds of his own. However, the alliance is shortlived and he is defeated by Gaim Strawberry Arms and Ryugen and is then ganged up by the new Armored Riders: Gridon and Kurokage. Thankfully, Gaim and Ryugen intervenes, defeating the two Armored Riders. Later, Kaito is defeated by Oren, who stole Team Red Hot's Sengoku Driver.

Kaito, striving to become stronger formulates that his Banana Lockseed is the most well-rounded for offense and defense. It isn't until he protects Mai and later sees Kouta utilizing his Pine Arms to gain an advantage against a rampant Inves does Kaito switch out his Banana Lockseed for the Mango Lockseed. To his shock, Mango Arms provides major strengths and easily defeats the Inves with Pine Arms Gaim.

During a brand new Inves Game devised by Mitsuzane and Kouta, Kaito is easily eliminated along with Oren by the White Armored Rider (Takatora) and is taken out of the forest.

Yggdrasill Saga
With the Beat Riders named slandered, Kaito challenges Oren, who is publicy criticizing the Beat Riders, however Peco is injured and Kaito swears on his name to settle things the next time they see each other. When Kouta struggles against Oren, Kaito comes to his aid creating a temporary alliance with Gaim donning the Banana Arms alongside Baron donning the Mango Arms. After defeating Oren, the two see a rampant Inves being destroyed with relative ease by Zangetsu Shin (Takatora). Kaito provides support for Kouta as he runs to help Hase, who is turned into an Inves. Kaito is easily defeated by Takatora.

Later while meeting Ryoma Sengoku, he realizes that they were merely guinea pigs for the Sengoku Driver. Kaito, later in an attempt to challenge Yggdrasill's power, joins Kouta into sneaking into the forest and dons the Suika Arms against New Generation Rider Sigurd. However, Kaito is later intercepted by Sigurd as he passes through the crack into the Yggdrasill Headquarters.

Helheim Saga & Over Lord Saga
Kaito reveals his ideals stating that humanity is weak and that only the strong should survive. He unintentionally joins Ryoma's faction as he becomes the test subject while trying to find the Red Over Lord, Demushu while trying to understand Yggdrasill's motives. Once finding Demushu, he realizes that he is outclassed by the Over Lord, struggling extremely in Banana Arms. While in Mango Arms, his decreased mobility proves to be his downfall as Demushu rapidly attacks him, bringing Kaito down to his knees.

After being saved from Yoko, he finds himself bestowed with a gift from Ryoma Sengoku: a Genesis Driver and a Lemon Energy Lockseed. Now able to combat Demushu on equal terms, Kaito is stopped by Gaim. However, Gaim is shot by Ryugen, who now holds a strong sense of animosity towards Kouta. However, despite Kaito finding Kouta a nuisance, he finds that Mitsuzane is an enemy for being a sneak, attacking a man from the back. He later puts Kouta in a tree and camouflages him so that he doesn't attract any wild Inves. Kaito, realizing Mitsuzane's deception, aids Kouta as the two battle Zangetsu Shin (Mitsuzane in disguise). Despite Kaito's attempts to warn Kouta of Mitsuzane's betrayal, the latter is completely oblivious to it. In an attempt to find the Over Lords, Kaito fights Sid, both trading blows before Sid runs away. Together with Kouta, they fight Sid, Zangetsu Shin, and Demushu. However, Demushu escapes, forcing Kaito and Kouta to enter Zawame City to stop the Over Lord's rampage. Separated from his Genesis Driver, Kaito watches to his horror that Yggdrasill is attacking Kouta, critically injuring him. Kaito, disgusted at Yggdrasill's tactics, leaves the rest of the Kurokage Troopers and Marika to die. When asked why Kaito cares so much about strength, he reveals that it is because he's one of the weak who grasps to be stronger, the one who grasps power in order to stop oppressors and stand up against them. Kaito returns to the battlefield with Zack against the Over Lord. Even though Demushu is over powered by the two riders, Marika and the Kurokage troopers interfered, so the Over Lord took the opportunity to escape. Later, Kaito and Zack aid Marika in battling the Inves that are invading the city. They are soon joined by Bravo and Gridon. Even though battling the Inves was a success, the evolved Demushu arrives and overpowers them all. Just when he was about to finish them, Kouta shows up and transform into Kiwami Arms. The Riders watched as Gaim defeated the Over Lord with his new power. Later at Team Gaim's meeting place, Kaito and others agree to evacuate the citizens of Zawame City to a new place and contact each other with the communication devices Yoko suggested. After fighting an Inves, Kaito communicates with Mai and encourage her to dance as a way to show her power, and that one day people will return to the City before heading to a Crack.

Personality
Cold, Kaito believes firmly in the doctrine of "the survival of the fittest", thinking that the weak should perish for the strong. This however doesn't mean that he views himself as one of the strong, he actually views himself as one of the weak and that it's imperative for the weak to grasp for power because it stops the strong from looking down and attacking the weak. Much like Kouta, Kaito doesn't want power just because it's power, it's how the power is used separating Kaito from having the same mindset as Demushu.

Despite his ruthless personality, he has a soft spot towards kids and humanity, and the safety and care of his teammates, such as what happened when Bravo's weapon hits the stage sign and had Peco's arm broken. When he realized that premature Lockseeds mutate humans, such as when Hase eats it and turned into Inves, he shows a more human side by preventing Zangetsu-Shin from killing the mutated Hase. He also quits Team Baron and left Zack (now Kamen Rider Knuckle) in charge as he didn't want his teammates to get hurt due to him being an Armored Rider and being hunted by Yggdrasill. Kaito also does care for his rival, Kouta. While Kaito claims that he doesn't care about Kouta, he does respect his strength and values him as an ally. Kaito risks his life numerous times to aid him during fights such as fighting against the Seiryu Inves, working together with Kouta against Bravo, covering Kouta while being decoy against Zangetsu Shin, becoming a decoy once again while fighting Kurokage Troopers, covering Kouta again and having a showdown with Sigurd, protecting Kouta from a deadly trap against Zangetsu Shin II, and takes a deadly shot meant for Kouta by Demushu.

Unlike his teammates in Team Baron, he dislikes cheating and dirty tricks as he likes to win fair and square, knowing the risks of out of control Inves and how it could endanger humanity, especially if the Inves are in a higher class states. After Kamen Rider Gaim defeated Raid Wild's Ryoji in Inves Game, Kaito became aware that the Rider doesn't know how to use the Sengoku Driver properly. For stating that his foolishness is far more than Kaito's. After obtaining the Lockseeds from Helheim Forest, he has a respect on a previous winning with teams like Raid Wild and Invitto such as giving them Lockseeds (except for Mango as his safe-keep) with no hard feelings. During his encounter with Bravo/Oren, Kaito is honored by Oren as a worthy opponent with a fighting spirit. Later, it was revealed that after Yggdrasill Corporation shut down his father's construction company, Kaito held a grudge against them and wanted to find the power to get back at them which made him who he is in the present.

Arms
As with the other Armored Riders, Kamen Rider Baron's forms are called Arms (アームズ). With the exception of Lemon Energy Arms, all of his European Knight-themed Arms' helmets share the title Casque (カスク), while his visors share the title Sight (サイト).

Kamen Rider Baron's ending theme is entitled "Never Surrender".

Devices

 * Transformation devices:
 * Sengoku Driver - Primary transformation device
 * Genesis Driver - Secondary transformation device
 * Arms Weapons - Weapons that come with the Arms:
 * Banaspear - Baron Banana Arms' personal weapon
 * Mango Punisher - Baron Mango Arms' personal weapon
 * Unnamed lance - Baron Suika Arms' personal weapon in Yoroi Mode
 * Sonic Arrow - Baron Lemon Energy Arms' personal weapon
 * Medajalibur - Baron OOO Arms' personal weapon
 * Ichigo Kunai - Baron Ichigo Arms' personal weapons
 * Kiwi Gekirin - Baron Kiwi Arms' personal weapons
 * Melon Defender - Baron Melon Arms' personal weapon
 * Lockseeds - Gives access to Baron's form changes, depending on which arm the lock is

Vehicles

 * Rose Attacker - Kamen Rider Baron's main Rider Machine
 * Dandeliner - Kamen Rider Baron's second Rider Machine

List of Appearances

 * Kamen Rider Gaim
 * 1-16, 18-29, 31-
 * Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Gaim & Wizard: The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle
 * Kamen Rider Gaim: Sengoku Battle Royale
 * Sengoku Movie Battle
 * Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai
 * Ressha Sentai ToQger Vs. Kamen Rider Gaim Spring Vacation Combining Special
 * Kamen Rider Gaim the Movie: The Great Soccer Match! The Golden Fruit Cup!

Portrayal
Kaito Kumon is portrayed by Yutaka Kobayashi (小林 豊). As a child, Kaito is portrayed by Kurando Katayama (片山 蔵人).

As Kamen Rider Baron, his suit actor is Eitoku (永徳), who has been the suit actor for the majority of the Secondary Riders of the Neo-Heisei era (except Beast).

Legend Rider Lockseeds

 * The following Legend Rider Lockseeds are styled for Baron, as well as Gridon:
 * Black RX - "Son of the Sun!"
 * Blade - "Sword of Spade!"
 * Kiva - "King of Vampire!"
 * OOO - "Tatoba, Ta~To~Ba!"
 * OOO Tajadol Combo - "Ta~Ja, Ta~Ja~Dol!"
 * Ankh - "Happy Birth~Day!"