Enokida (榎田, Enokida) is a member of the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens baseball team and a long-time acquaintance of Zenji Banba's. He is a genius hacker who works as an informant.
Characteristics
Appearance
Enokida has dyed light blond hair with long bangs covering nearly half of his face. The cut makes his head resemble an enoki mushroom, hence the nickname Enokida. He is usually seen wearing a yellow parka with red skinny jeans and black-and-white checkered shoes.
Personality
Enokida is a rather aloof and playful individual. He is prideful and assertive when it comes to his abilities in hacking, and he will sell his services to anyone, even if by doing so, he knowingly puts his friends in danger. Even though he gives his friends fair warning, he has faith in them to survive the difficult situations he sometimes puts them in.
Aside from business, he is known to use his hacking skills for his own entertainment, such as toying with street lights in a certain radius or changing the weather forecast for the week.
Background
Enokida grew up in a luxurious and wealthy household, but he primarily has negative memories of his upbringing. Being the son of a politician and an influential figure, his father endorsed a strict education and lifestyle for him, causing Enokida to lash out and defy his father frequently. When he was a teenager, he intentionally hacked into his father's personal files during a crucial point in the election process. After this stunt, his father realized he was a lost cause and ordered his servant Yagi to dispose of him.
Enokida was brought to a warehouse when Yagi pointed a gun at him, telling him it was just the master's orders. He let Enokida go, however, and provided him with a plane ticket to Fukuoka, promising him there were people he knew there who could help him.
About a year after that, Enokida started working for an overseas hacker group and was captured by a certain organization. José Martínez was hired to extract information from him, but uncomfortable with torturing a young teenager he injected him with a truth serum instead. However, Enokida talked about his own personal history and upbringing to avoid spilling information and succeeded, impressing Martínez and earning his respect. It is still unclear what became of that situation past that or when Enokida left the group he belonged to, but at some point he became a completely freelance hacker operating in Fukuoka.
History
Mayor Harada Scandal Arc
Zenji Banba visits Enokida in an internet cafe on the fifth floor of the Gate's Building where Enokida has been staying. Banba shows him a photo of Mayor Harada accompanied by a woman whom Banba suspects to be a killer in his employment. Enokida hacks into Murder, Inc.'s archive and discovers the woman is named Reiko Asakura, a killer for hire, and provides information about another killer who left Murder, Inc. and specializes in strangulation, Hisashi Ivanov. After accepting Banba's payment for the information, Enokida gives Banba his own GPS-equipped redback spider model listening device.
Enokida is visited by Banba a few days later, inquiring about a killer who had visited his office. Banba asks if Enokida knows anyone fitting the description of a male cross-dresser. Having already looked up a man with a similar description for Yamato and Martínez, Enokida brings up information on Xianming Lin. Later that day, Banba takes Ivanov's cell phone from Lin and tasks Enokida with retrieving information from it. Enokida arrives at Banba's office to discuss what he has found and shows Banba and Lin the footage of Takuya Itou being framed by Reiko and Munakata. He then plays Banba and Lin the recording of Reiko and Munakata's conversation taken by the bug planted on Ivanov's body, revealing that the true culprit of Qiaomei Lin's murder is the mayor's son, Yusuke Harada. Lin proposes a plan to get him close to Yusuke and asks for Banba and Enokida's assistance to pull it off.
Later, Enokida is confronted by Reiko and Munakata, who found him by tracking the last signal emitted from Ivanov's cell phone. They take him into the bathroom to extort information out of him. Unfazed by the rough treatment, Enokida merely requests payment for his information before divulging Banba and Lin's plan to assassinate Yusuke. Near the end of the exchange, Enokida secretly slips the GPS-equipped redback spider listening device onto Reiko's person.
After Banba, Lin, Saitoh, and Jiro capture Yusuke and force him to confess his crimes on camera, Jiro sends Enokida the recording. Enokida edits Lin out of the video and broadcasts it throughout Fukuoka via an electromagnetic hijack, effectively leading to Mayor Harada losing his position.
Niwaka Samurai Impersonator Arc
Enokida is contacted by Martínez and is tasked to find information on a van in a recent car accident for an avenger related work. During their conversation, Martínez mentions that he hasn't been getting much work for his main occupation lately, which Enokida offers to write a post promoting his work on an underground website. After he finishes making the post for him, Enokida gives Martínez a new version of the redback spider transmitter.
After Enokida finishes his business with Martínez, he goes to meet his next client, Nguyen, from Murder Inc. Nguyen asks him to track down Saitoh. Unsure what to do yet, Enokida requests to have some time to find Saitoh's whereabouts. Enokida gives it some thought for a few days before telling Nguyen Saitoh's whereabouts. Once Nguyen leaves to Saitoh's apartment, he calls Saitoh to give him a heads up but the other does not pick up and ends up leaving a voicemail.
A few days later, Enokida strolls through the city when a panicked Saitoh rushes up to him, trying to escape George Gondou. Enokida tries to brush him off, not wanting to get his life endangered as well, but Saitoh keeps following after him. Fortunately, Enokida spots Genzo pulling his food cart not far away and requests him for assistance. Genzo easily takes down Gondou, and the three question the man's motives. After Enokida learns of his motivations, he devises a plan to allow Gondou to fulfill his end of the job and save Saitoh's life from Murder Inc. simultaneously. He finds Yamamoto and Abe and has Martínez and Jiro bring Yamamoto to Saeki to have him undergo plastic surgery, making him look identical to Saitoh. Enokida then brings the restrained Yamamoto to Nguyen, pretending that the man was the real Saitoh.
Trivia
- Enokida's real given name, Chihiro, is first revealed in the anime by Yagi.
- He does not have an official residence and will often operate in various internet cafes in Fukuoka.
- His hacker handle is "Blackleg Nameko" - both black-leg and nameko are names of mushrooms.
- Enokida is the one to suggest and write a post on the web to promote Martínez's torture business, but in the anime Enokida only tells him of the site and Misaki is the one to write the post instead.
- It is mentioned in the Durarara x Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens crossover novel that he has been playing piano since middle school.
- He has a cameo appearance in the Durarara!! spin-off novel A Standing Ovation with Izaya Orihara and is involved in the plot off-screen.
- He is born on Valentine's day.
