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 founder and 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.

In Episode 43, he eats a fruit of Helheim and becomes an Over Lord Inves.

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 Peko.

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 and Ryugen. Then the new Armored Riders: Gridon and Kurokage gangs up on him. Thankfully, Gaim and Ryugen intervenes, defeating the two Armored Riders.

After the appearance of Kamen Rider Bravo, Kaito is challenged by the man himself, Oren Pierre Alfonso, and loses severely.

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 provided major strength and easily defeated the Inves with Gaim's Pine Arms.

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

Yggdrasill Saga
With the Beat Riders named slandered, Kaito challenges Oren, who is publicly criticizing the Beat Riders, however Peko 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.

Upon Mitsuzane's return, Yoko knowing that Mitsuzane is siding with the Over Lords and is the imposter Zangetsu Shin decides to tell him his place. Kaito stops Yoko as he will go to Mitsuzane and ask him to talk with Yoko outside in private. After being informed by Reydue that she will declare war on the human race, Kaito and Kouta went out to save the captured citizens and face-off Grinsha. However, Reydue interferes and the two riders witness the King of the Over Lord destroy the missiles in a single attack. Gaim and Baron soon destroy Grinsha shortly after Reydue takes her leave.

His left arm was infected as the result of Redyue's attack while trying to save both Takatora and Kouta from Mitsuzane. When Mitsuzane and Redyue escaped, he tells Kouta the reason why he's trying to warn about Mitsuzane's allegiance back when he, Yoko and Kouta were trying to get inside Yggdrasill, but there were too many Inves guards until they were spotted. Kaito later went to Mai, seeing her still dancing, reiterating that she's strong in her own way.

When Ryoma arrives at the base, Kaito finds him beating up Kouta and Zack. He halts Ryoma by preparing to shoot him from behind as a warning. When learning about Ryoma's cooperation, he doubts it alongside the others. In the evening, he discusses it with Kouta. When Mai asks a favor from Kouta, Kaito dislikes Kouta's response, telling him that he never thinks about what his future will be and warns him about Mitzusane. The next day, he and Kouta find Peko is beaten up and being told by him that Mai was kidnapped by Mitsuzane. Kaito teamed up with Kouta against Mitsuzane, but even teaming up with Kouta, in their final forms no less, are unable to defeat the insane Mitsuzane. Discovering the odds, he forces Kouta to retreat. After retreating, he warns Kouta that Mitsuzane is no longer the person they knew. He tells Kouta that Mitsuzane has gained an insane kind of power and no longer fears anything and they will need to make new preparations to beat him.

Back at the garage, Kaito decides to follow Kouta with the others. When Inves have attacked the outline of Zawame city, he alongside Kouta, Hideyasu, and Oren fight them all to protect the van they use to go to the hidden path to Yggdrasill Tower. Soon, he continues the journey while leaving Oren and Hideyasu as they tell him to go without them. After arriving, he punched Ryoma as he slacked off and warn him if he messes up again, then he needs to prepare himself. Going inside, suddenly Ryoma's alarm security turned on and summoned Suika Arms and Tulip Hoppers. He tells Kouta and Ryoma to continue while he, alongside Yoko and Zack will hold them all. After they destroyed the Suika Arms armors and Tulip Hoppers, they managed to find the kidnapped citizens as Kaito breaks the machine, freeing them. Later, Mitsuzane appears to stop him from reaching Kouta as they transform and fought each other.

Kaito has a brawl against Mitsuzane before leaving Oren and Jonouchi to handle Mitsuzane. Kaito and Kouta are intercepted by Rosyuo. However, Kaito is gravely injured and is also in extreme agony due to the infection across his arm. Kaito witnesses the deaths of Rosyuo and Redyue.

Sengoku Battle Movie
Event takes place before a Lockseed hunt Inves Game event. He, along with the other Beat Riders' Armored Riders are competing for special Rider Battle event, until the event were interrupted by a sudden appearance of Nepenthes Monster, who is ordered by Kamen Rider Bujin Gaim to kidnap Mai as he mistakes her for The Priestess of Fate. This is also led him, Gaim and Ryugen to follow Bujin Gaim's right hand monster in a suddenly raining Helheim, but also resulting them brought by Bujin Gaim into his world of alternate Sengoku period where the previous Heisei Kamen Riders are called "Bujin". When Mitsuzane spots smoke from the sky, the three Riders goes to the place where the smoke is coming from, which turns out to be a burning castle where the Bujin OOO faction are defending themselves against a horde of Yummies. When Nobunaga and Ranmaru go inside into the burning castle, Kaito sought him, until one of the hordes of Yummies and Greeeds entered the castle. Nobunaga sacrifices himself to get his loyal follower, Ranmaru, safely into Kaito's care, he throws to Kaito a Core Taka Medal as a remnant, and is told to escape, and leave him behind to die with the hordes of Yummies and Greeeds inside the castle.

In a village, Kaito is saved by Nobunaga's loyal servant from the thugs, thus promoting him as a new Bujin and reformed the Bujin OOO faction into the Bujin Baron faction. After meeting Mai, whose also enters the Sengoku world, his faction goes to Ieyasu's castle and challenges Gaim for a duel. If he wins, the Riders will surrender to Bujin Gaim, if he loses, he'll help the Kamen Riders against Bujin Gaim. Apparently he loses the challenge and will help Gaim and Wizard, joined by Zangetsu against Bujin Gaim's faction, releasing Kosuke Nitoh/Kamen Rider Beast and Mitsuzane from Nepenthes' imprisonment. When the real Priestess of Fate appears in front of the Riders and Bujin Gaim, she lends some Helheim fruits to the Armored Riders to fuse the Bujin Riders' remnants into Legend Rider Lockseeds for the Riders to assume their Rider Arms, with Wizard and Beast assuming their final forms. He, along with Beast, Zangetsu, and Ryugen finished off other past Monsters and Nepenthes. With the war against Bujin Gaim over, the Riders leave the world in separate ways. Having returned along with Kouta, Mitsuzane and Mai into their world, they saw that the tournament still continued without them, as the three Riders and Mai rushed back to return to the fight.

Kamen Rider Taisen
The event begins in the prequel of the movie and takes place after his first initial encounter with Over Lord Demushu. He appears assisting Gaim and Ryugen against an infamous evil organization, named Badan Underground Empire. Though he refuses to join Gaim, Ryugen and the ToQgers against Badan at first, he changes his mind instead because he has nothing else to do. Baron and Ryugen plan to lure Moguraroid out of the building by pretending to battle each other, so that Kouta and Right can get Mai out of the Badan's turf. With the revelation that there are two Moguraroid brothers, the three Riders and ToQ 1gou are joined by the other four main ToQgers for a final battle. With Gaim and the ToQgers taking care of the Moguraroid twins separately, Baron and Ryugen finish off Badan's remnants. As the ToQgers leave, Kaito sees the Rainbow Line leaving, due to having a bit of imagination left in him.

In the movie, Kaito, along with the Kureshima brothers aids Gaim to keep Badan away from Shuu Aoi, until he witnesses Zangetsu Shin's defeat at the hands of Fifteen, turning into an unseen Lockseed. Arriving at Drupers, Tsukasa sent Kaito to Futo to help Shotaro with searching for missing pets. He would appear to aid Joker from Black and Black RX as they manage to defeat RX. However Baron sacrificed himself protecting Joker, having Super-1 and Amazon finish him off and turned into an unseen Lockseed. Once all Riders are released from the Lockseed seals, he later appears with Ryugen and Zangetsu-Shin as they finish off one of Badan's monsters. After the battle, Kaito was seen in the pet store planning to buy a turtle.

Soccer Match: Golden Fruit Cup
After Mitsuzane from the original world finally reveals his true face to the Beat Rider resistance, Kaito is approached by DJ Sagara to challenge Gaim from another world, until he is brought by Lapis into that particular world, where the Beat Rider teams compete in soccer matches. He finds out that Zack is the only Rider in Team Baron, while Bravo, Jonouchi and a still alive Hase are a team in Team Charmant. Being new to that world, his arm that was infected by Redyue's attack is suddenly cured, due to the alternate world's Helheim not invading Earth. He also receives soccer training from famous J-League player Kengo Nakamura and finally becomes captain of this alternate world's Team Baron. He meets Lapis, the one who brought him to this world, for the first time when suddenly, an unknown grasshopper kaijin called Inago comes out from Lapis. Kaito transforms into Baron and battles it, forgetting that the Armored Rider suits are only used for soccer in this world, and have no fighting spirit. He challenges Team Charmant for a showdown, until a kaijin Inago interrupts the match. However, Kengo and Kosuke Ota kicks the ball onto Inago's head, with Baron in Lemon Energy Arms finishing off the kaijin with his Sonic Arrow and Lemon Energy Sparking. After the battle, he meets Lapis again, who kicks a ball towards him. As Kaito catches the ball, he receives a vision of the events that will happen in the future, before waking up in his original world to find that it was all a dream.

After a soccer match had turned into a warring battle, he recognized Lapis from before he was brought into the soccer world, until Kouta breaks off their fight to think about a bigger threat to settle first. He soon battles Zangetsu Shin and Bravo. He's one of the few surviving Riders (counting Ryugen and Marika) to confront Kougane/Kamen Rider Mars, who apparently brainwashed Kouta into being his servant to attack the surviving soccer world's Riders, until Lapis breaks him free. With most of the Riders brought back to life, Lapis obtains a Sengoku Driver to transform into into Kamen Rider Kamuro as the Riders battle Kamen Rider Mars Flamed-Horse Position.

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. However, after choosing to become an Over Lord by eating a Helheim fruit while fighting Duke, he ended up becoming just like Demushu.

He is always prepared to do anything that has impressed him and he will almost never hesitate to do it, as he has stated to Lapis. Such as joining the Sengoku's period battle by taking the title of Bujin Baron and accept to be taught to play soccer in the alternate world. He will join anything as long as it is a race to be a strong person in some case. The reason of almost is, he can have the feeling of fear when not fully prepared as being seen when tagged up with Kouta to defeat the maddened Mitsuzane, telling him to retreat after seeing how powerful he is.

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 Peko's arm broken. When he realized that premature Lockseeds mutate humans, such as when Ryoji Hase eats it and turned into an 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 Hase 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 and New Generation 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).

Devices

 * Transformation devices:
 * Sengoku Driver - Primary transformation device
 * Genesis Driver - Secondary transformation device
 * Lockseeds - Gives access to Baron's Arms changes, depending on which lock is used

Weapons

 * 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
 * Ichigo Kunai - Baron Ichigo Arms' personal weapons
 * Melon Defender - Baron Melon Arms' personal weapon
 * Kiwi Gekirin - Baron Kiwi Arms' personal weapons
 * Sonic Arrow - Baron Lemon Energy Arms' personal weapon
 * Medajalibur - Baron OOO Arms' personal weapon
 * DenGasher Sword Mode - Baron Den-O Arms' personal weapon
 * WizarSwordGun - Baron Wizard Arms' personal weapon

Vehicles

 * Lock Vehicles - Vehicles that unfold from special Lockseeds:
 * 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 the Vampire!"
 * OOO - "Tatoba, Ta~To~Ba!"
 * OOO Tajadol Combo - "Ta~Ja, Ta~Ja~Dol!"
 * OOO Putotyra Combo - "Pu-To-Tyranno~Sau~rus!"
 * Ankh - "Happy Birth~Day!"