Lavi

Lavi is a main protagonist and member of the fictional religious organization known as the Black Order and successor to the Bookman title, in the anime and manga series D.Gray-man, by Katsura Hoshino.

Background
Lavi is a cheerful red-haired Exorcist of mixed race, who aims to become a Bookman and is working along the Black Order just to be close to the events that must be seen. To help him, he developed an incredible memory: he is able to memorize every single aspect of something he saw, but he commented (in chapter 101) that he could identify "the key" (the key which Tyki Mikk gave) faster if he were to use both his eyes when sieving out the real "key" from the fake. He is 18 years old, and normally uses his left eye while the right eye is covered by an eye-patch (no one knows what his right eye looks like, because he hasn't revealed it yet).

He enjoys giving nicknames to various characters, naming Bookman "Old Panda" due to the thick black circles around his eyes, a converted Akuma "Chomesuke", and Arystar "Kro-chan" and "Fang Boy" in the anime and "Kro-chan" or "Krorykins" in the manga. He is the only character other than General Tiedoll to call Kanda by his given name (that name being Yu, also translated as Yū or Yuu), and apparently speaks to him outside of missions, a fact that was shown when he called Allen "beansprout" (モヤシ, moyashi), saying that if Kanda could call him that, Lavi could as well, as he is the same age as Kanda. He has a habit of teasing Allen, and deems himself as his big brother. A recurring gag in the series is Lavi's fondness for beautiful older women, whenever he sees a woman his type (Example: Eliade, Lulubell, Chomesuke, Anita) he'll yell out "Strike!" with hearts in his eye.

It is later revealed that his name, Lavi, is just an alias (his 49th, to be exact). He previously used the name Deak (ディック, Dikku), as revealed by a past memory while in Road's dimension. He had cast aside his old name and background to show his commitment to being a Bookman. It was also revealed that Lavi was once cold and indifferent to others, for a Bookman only lives to view and record history and that humans are nothing more than 'ink' on a page. However, over time, Lavi's personality changed and he began to truly care about others. He slowly casts aside his identity as a Bookman in favor of his protecting his friends; as shown when he thought that Allen was killed by Tyki Mikk, he tried to avenge Allen by attempting to kill Tyki himself.

There are many different translations of his name, such as Ravi, Rabi, Labi, but the correct spelling was printed in volume six of the manga in October of 2005, and later in the omake for episode 61 of the anime.

Rewinding Town arc
Lavi is introduced into the series after the "The Rewinding City" arc alongside Bookman. He is the one that shows Allen Walker how hard it is for "normal" Exorcists to find the Akuma.

The Vampire from the Old Castle arc
Along with Bookman, Lavi joins Allen and Lenalee to find General Cross Marian. When Allen is separated from the group, Lavi is the one that goes back to find him after Lenalee forces him. As he finds him, he is roped into a "vampire" hunt by the villagers. He becomes shocked as he finds the vampire, Arystar Krory. As Allen gets bit by him, Lavi keeps a stake and some garlic with him while chanting Lenalee will never speak to him again.

As they enter the castle and run into Krory's man-eating flowers, Lavi spots Eliade and he instantly becomes smitten with her. Allen stopped him from trying to become her "lover" and the two fought Krory again. Before the fight however, Allen and Lavi discovered that Krory has been killing Akuma instead of people. As Allen battled Eliade, Lavi tried to convince Krory to join them before realizing Eliade was an Akuma. Krory was uninterested and threw both him and Allen into the man-eating flowers. Realizing they only eat people with negative attitudes, Allen told Lavi to proclaim feelings of love to the flowers like him so they could escape.

Finally freed, Lavi watched as Allen converted Krory to the Black Order. He watched alongside Allen as Krory burned down his castle to find a new life with his first friends. As he reported Krory's joining to Komui, Lavi explained to Komui Lee that he'd never want Allen's cursed pentacle as he can now see what Allen sees through it.

Edo arc
He later helps Lenalee to look for Allen after he's attacked by Tyki Mikk. Along with the other Exorcists, he goes to Edo to find General Cross and helps fights off the attacking Akumas. When Lenalee does not return to the ship, he gets deeply worried, so he uses his Ōzuchi Kozuchi(see below) to go look for her. When he did, instead he finds the converted Akuma, Chomesuke. He, thinking she was the one that hurt Lenalee, he threatened to destroy her. After he finds out the she is on their side, he is forced to apologize to her. Both him and Bookman find out that Lenalee's Innocence saved her life, which has never happened before, meaning hers is an "exception". They start to think that her Innocence might be the "Heart". After arriving in Edo,When Chomesuke returns to human form, he is thrown into a dilemma over lusting after an Akuma. The group is attack by a Lv 3 Akuma. After they escape from them, one of the Level 3 Akuma caught up with the group. Using his "Fire Seal" to attract two other Level 3 Akuma, the three lv 3 Akumas then fight each other and the group escapes.

After being found by the Millennium Earl, Lavi tries to kill Tyki for what he did to Allen, but when the Earl makes the Giant Akuma, he has to help the other Exorcists destroy it, with no success however. When Chomesuke dies fighting a giant Akuma Lavi becomes emotional before focusing on the battle. But they were saved by General Tiedoll's group.

Noah's Ark arc
After Allen's return, Lenalee was captured by the Earl's golem, Lero. Lavi and some of the members, including Allen, follows her to the Ark. They are found by Tyki, in his human form, who after changing to his Noah form, gives them a key to use Road Kamelot's "door". After they use the key to open one of the door, they run into Skin Boric. Kanda then stays behind to let the others go on. They then encounter Jasdero and David who takes the key and makes copies of it, and then makes the group find the "real" key while fighting them at the same time. Lavi has the others fight off the two Noahs and uses his incredible memory to find the "real" key. Krory stay behind to fight Jasdevi (after they joined their bodies) and along with the remaining 4, they moves on. Reaching the top of the Ark, they run into Tyki and Road. When Tyki reveals that his Tease ate through Allen's heart, Lavi realizes that there are two "exceptions" (the other being Lenalee's). After Allen starts to fight Tyki, Lavi starts his fight with Road, who uses her power to make him fight his "past".

During his fight against his past incarnation, his 'heart' (current personality) was supposedly destroyed. This caused his past incarnation, under the control of Road, to emerge in his physical body and savagely attack Allen. Unwilling to hurt Lavi, Allen attacked Road but failed to harm her, as her current body was not her true form. Lavi's current self managed to resurface and suppress his past self. He then engulfed himself in a massive Fire Seal to attack Road in the real world, while simultaneously stabbing her through the heart within her dimension, defeating her.

After the appearance of Cross Marian to their aid, Lavi's status was unknown after falling into a 'hole' made by the Earl's flashy entrance. He attempted to lengthen his Innocence to save himself, but it shattered when Allen grabbed Lavi's Innocence in an effort to pull him up. Although he was apparently lost in the 'hole' in the Ark, he was shown to have been revived along with the rest of the 'lost' Exorcists on the Ark when the Ark was restored by Allen.

Invasion of HQ arc
He is now back at the Black Order HQ waiting for his Innocence to be fixed. When Lulu Bell and her Akuma attack the HQ, he is unable to assist Allen as he cannot activate his (shattered) hammer. Since he is unable to assist in the battle, he is put into the infirmary with Lenalee, who is also unable to help. Lavi protects Komui and Lenalee with a flag, since his hammer has not yet been repaired. Joined by Kanda and Allen, he fights the Level 4 with everything he has, taking a lot of damage in the process, in order to save Komui, Lenalee, and Hevlaska. He has turned into a child just as Kanda because of a potion found during the HQ's moving process.

Rise of the Noah arc
Lavi is seen with a team of Exorcists fighting Akuma in China (chapter 187), until many of the Noah appears.

Anti-Akuma weapon
Lavi's anti-Akuma weapon is a size-shifting hammer, which he calls Ōzuchi Kozuchi (大槌小槌, lit. "big hammer little hammer"). It can grow (満, ban) and extend (伸, shin) at Lavi's command. He also uses it as a mode of transportation by standing on the handle and continuously extending it in one direction. The weight increases with its size, but since Lavi is the accomodator, this weight change does not affect him. The near destruction of the hammer during the Ark, forced Lavi to use anything he could get his hands on during the battle against the Level 4 Akuma. But in the later, the hammer is rebuilt as a much sleeker, easier to use weapon, now looking more like an average war hammer. Besides using it for brute strength, Lavi can also use the hammer to summon several "judgments" by hitting elemental seals (written in Kanji) that appear around his head. When using this in the Anime (English dub), he calls out Innocence level 2, Release. His techniques, as shown so far, are as follows:


 * Hi Ban: Gouka Kaijin (火判 劫火灰燼, lit. Fire Seal: Configuration of Ash. English dub: stamp, fire circle, hell fire devouring fire stamp): Lavi uses the Fire seal to create a torrent of flames in the form of a snake.


 * Ten Ban: Raitei Kaiten (天判 雷霆回天, lit. Heaven Seal: Thundering Lightning Whirling in the Skies): Lavi uses the Heaven seal to generate a vast storm of lightning.


 * Moku Ban: Tenchi Bankai (木判 天地盤回, lit. Wood Seal: Roots Entwining Heaven and Earth. English dub: Wood circle, Wood stamp, spinning disk of Haven and Earth): Lavi uses the Wood seal to control objects in nature (i.e. the clouds, wind).


 * Konbo Ban: Gouraiten (コンボ判 剛雷天, lit. Combo Seal: Strong Thunder of the Heavens): Lavi uses both the Fire and the Heaven seals to create a huge snake of fire and iron. He can also create a shield-like flame wall.

Some of the seals have not yet been revealed and appear as question marks interspersed around the seals. This probably means that Lavi has yet to learn some seals from his Innocence. When Bookman berates him for not using the Wood seal to move the clouds, Lavi states that he had forgotten that he could use it to affect nature directly, and as he remembers, the question mark turns into the kanji for the Wood Seal. The Wood Seal can actually be seen throughout the manga whenever Lavi summons his seals (e.g. during the use of the Heaven seal), long before the use of the actual seal itself. The seals for Water and Earth can also be seen, but Lavi has not yet used them.

Trivia

 * He was originally going to be the main character of a series called Book-Man.
 * He and Kanda are listed as "Friends?" in the fanbook.
 * Lavi has been 3rd in both popularity polls held for D'Gray-Man, just behind Allen Walker and Yu Kanda.