Lavi

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

Appearance
Lavi is a red-haired Exorcist of mixed race with a green eye. His hair is usually worn spiked with a bandanna wrapped around his head, and sometimes worn without the bandanna. He also wears an eye patch on his right eye for reasons unknown, but he has stated that it is not due to an injury. He is 5'9 in height, and grows to 5'10 later in the series. Lavi initially wears an Exorcist uniform with a long coat and a long orange scarf around his neck. He has since changed his uniform twice and has donned a new bandanna and scarf. For casual wear, he has a variety of shirts, often worn with white pants. He also wears dark brown boots that goes up to his knees. He has a holster on his right leg where he keeps his Innocence when its not in use.

Personality
Lavi has a cheerful demeanor, and is always on hand to offer support, encouragement and guidance to his friends. Lavi has a complex personality; at times he is mischievous, laid-back, and relaxed, but at other times he is cold and bitter. He has a darker side to him as well, as being a bookman means that he is not allowed to make connections to the humans he works with although, his heart goes against these teachings and he will fiercely protect his friends. Despite his generally playful attitude, Lavi can also be very mature. He often acts as a big brother and mentor to the people he is around, particularly Allen and Lenalee, and usually tries to calm Allen and Kanda down when they have one of their many arguments. Lavi is very intelligent and strategic when it comes to battling, working out tactics that would be most effective and is very knowledgable about facts and history.

Lavi 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 and apparently speaks to him outside of missions, as hinted when he called Allen "beansprout" (モヤシ, moyashi, Short Stack in the english dub), 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 both Allen and Kanda. Lavi also loves sleeping, usually sleeping in much longer than Allen and Lenalee, and collapsing to sleep when arriving back from Noah's Ark.

A recurring gag in the series is Lavi's fondness for beautiful older women. Whenever he sees a woman that is his type he yells out "Strike!" with hearts in his eye.

History
As a Bookman Lavi began training when he was very young. He has had many different aliases, currently totaling 49, with "Deak" being the most recent. During his training and meditation he developed his photographic memory and other skills associated with the Bookman lineage.Throughout his upbringing Lavi witnessed many wars and deemed humankind as foolish for their constant fighting and inability to stop the inevitable outbreak of war. This began to change when Lavi joined the Black Order and becamed friends with its members.

Shortly after joining the Order Lavi met a finder named Doug. Doug was initially distrustful of him, commenting, "Your eye is like glass. It reflects me, but that’s all. Nothing reaches inside." Lavi earns Doug's respect and affection, however, when he risks his life to save him. They reunited a little over a year later to investigate the events in a Elysee, a French town. During their investigation, Doug became fond of a girl named Colette. When Lavi departed after the investigation, however, Colette was killed and Doug attempted to resurrect her, becoming an akuma. After sneaking into the Black Order and killing many finders and other personnel, Lavi confronts him. Grief-stricken, Lavi struggles with his emotions until he is finally able to defeat Doug, unaware of his tears. Shortly later, Lavi and Bookman are dispatched to join Allen and Lenalee in the Rewinding Town.

Rewinding Town Arc
Lavi is introduced into the series after the "The Rewinding City" arc alongside Bookman while Allen is resting in the hospital. Komui calls them in to ask for information about the Noah family, but when Lavi tries to explain them on his own, he is scolded by Bookman and kicked out of the room. Lavi and Allen then go outside to make snowmen, but Allen gets upset by the idea of fighting the Noah, who are humans, and leaves. When Allen finds himself unable to distinguish human from akuma due to his injured left eye, Lavi saves Allen from being killed by an akuma. Lavi explains that other exorcists do not have Allen's advantage and cannot tell human from akuma. Instead, they are forced to suspect everyone of akuma, although Lavi notes that unlike other exorcists, he considers humans to be the Earl's allies.

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 sent by Bookman and Lenalee to look for him despite Lavi's reservations. He finds Allen tied up by desperate villagers and when he is discovered to be a member of the Black Order as well, Lavi, too, is tied up. He and Allen reluctantly join the villagers in a hunt for a man that is rumored to be a vampire, Arystar Krory. When Krory appears, he kills a man and the two exorcists immediately engage him in battle. Despite their best efforts, however, they are unable to land a hit. When Krory bites Allen, he is disgusted by the bitterness and flees. Lavi then carries a stake and several cloves of garlic with him, but when Allen gets offended, he insists that it was just a joke and leaves them behind.

As they enter the castle and run into Krory's man-eating flowers, Lavi spots Eliade and he instantly becomes smitten with her. Allen stops him from trying to become her "lover" and the two of them escape into the graveyard. There, they notice pentacles on the ground and after digging up one of Krory's victims, realize that he has been killing Akuma and is actually an exorcist. Krory attacks them and they try to explain to Krory what he is and ask him to join them.

Krory is uninterested, however, and knocks Allen back into the castle, leaving him to fight Eliade. The two groups are brought back together when Lavi maneuvers his battle with Krory into the castle. Allen's newly evolved eye, however, allows both Lavi and Krory to see that Eliade is an Akuma, but before they can aid Krory, they are attacked by the man-eating flowers. Realizing they only eat people with negative attitudes, Allen tells Lavi to proclaim feelings of love to the flowers so that they can escape.

Finally freed, Lavi watches as Allen converts Krory to the Black Order. He watches alongside Allen as Krory burns down his castle to find a new life with his first friends. As he reports Krory's joining to Komui, Lavi explains that at first, he thought Allen's cursed eye would be very useful, but after seeing what Allen sees, he decides that the world Allen sees "is hell".

Resuming their search for Cross, Lavi and Allen comfort Krory for being rejected by the townspeople. Krory goes to wander the train to cheer himself up, but when he is gone for three hours, Allen and Lavi search for him. They find him playing a game of poker with a man and has lost all of his clothes. Allen offers to play in Krory's place and the man accepts. Lavi then witnesses Allen's cheating ability and Krory's clothing is quickly won back.

Edo Arc
Further on their search, the group reaches China, where they are attacked by Akuma. After further investigation, they find a lead in the form of Anita, Cross' lover, and learn that Cross left for Edo eight days ago. The Cross unit prepare to follow and Anita is willing to help by providing a ship and crew, but a swarm of Akuma soon comes their way. As Allen and Lenalee investigate the sudden swarm of Akuma, Lavi, Krory, and Bookman stay behind to protect the ship.

After Allen is separated from Lenalee, she returns to the ship and asks Lavi for help in looking for him. As they search, they find Timcampy, who has been sent by Allen to bring Suman's Innocence to safety. Tim shows them his memories of what happened and brings them to where he left Allen, but they only find a puddle of blood and an ace of spades from Allen's deck of playing cards. Lavi, grieving his friend's apparent death, takes the card as they are contacted by their comrades and told to return to the ship. There, Sammo Han Won tells them that Allen's body has been recovered and orders them to continue on with their search for Cross without him.

With Miranda Lotto's arrival, Lavi receives his second uniform and, with the ship repaired by her abilities, the Cross Unit finally sets out. Lenalee, however, blames herself for Allen's death. Upset by her depression, Lavi angrily breaks a window and tells her that because they were all fighting for their lives the day before, there was no way they could have helped Allen. The passion of Lavi's words brings Lenalee to tears and Bookman uses it as an excuse to pull Lavi aside and scold him. Instead of scolding him for making Lenalee cry, however, Lavi is reprimanded for acting as if he is a true apostle of God. Bookman reminds Lavi that they are only observers and should not become so attached or emotional. Hearing the bickering of the exorcists, Anita and Mahoja come into their room. Seeing the broken window, Mahoja prepares to punish Lavi, but Miranda quickly intervenes by using her ability to repair the window.

En route to Edo, Lavi stares at Allen's ace of spades, contemplating his role as a Bookman and bitterly reminds himself that as a Bookman he has no need for a heart. As he thinks on this, however, a level three akuma, Eshii, attacks him. Lavi is slightly injured, but quickly recovers due to Miranda's abilities and counter-attacks, but finds his effort useless. Thrown against a mast, Lavi is unable to escape as Eshii moves in to kill him. Before Lavi can be killed, however, Bookman intervenes and manages to protect him. Eshii switches targets and lifts Bookman into the sky, promising him information. Panicked, Lavi follows on his hammer and catches Bookman as he falls from the sky. Lavi's wounds begin to return, however, and Lenalee flies past him, ordering him to return to the ship while she fights Eshii alone.

Bookman warns Lavi that there are other akuma hidden in the clouds and tells him to return to the ship. As Lavi and Krory work to fight the akuma in the clouds, Lavi loses his footing and is shot by an akuma and falls into the sea. The virus quickly spreads through his body, bringing him close to death. Krory, however, dives into the sea and drinks Lavi's blood, sucking out the akuma virus and keeping Lavi safe from harm. Returning to the ship, Lavi is disturbed to learn that he was bitten by Krory. Bookman quickly scolds them for not focusing, however, and reminds Lavi to use his wood seal. Lavi is then able to part the clouds and Krory is able to attack and kill the three akuma that were hiding. With the immediate threat destroyed, Lavi and the others notice a strange light in the area where Lenalee was left.

Deeply concerned, Lavi tries to leave the ship and search for her, but the crew immediately stops him. Frustrated, Lavi shakes them off. Miranda, however, begs Lavi to be kinder to the men who protected her life and asks Lavi to at least allow her to bandage the worst of his injuries before he leaves. Angry, Lavi says that that is unimportant and that they should be trying to help Lenalee, who is their comrade. Brought to tears, Miranda says that Lavi is their comrade too. Despite this, Lavi leaves the ship in search of Lenalee, Timcampy close behind him. Upon finding her, however, he meets a converted akuma, who is holding a large crystal with Lenalee inside. Although he initially believes that the akuma is a threat, his doubts are quelled when Timcampy sits on its head.

Upon returning to the ship Bookman notes that it is not possible for an equipment type Innocence to act of its own free will to save its user, leading both him and Lavi to conclude that her Innocence may be the Heart. The akuma then confirms that Cross is in Edo on a very important mission to destroy the Akuma Egg and passes along the message that Japan is very dangerous and if they end up being hindrances, they should all go home.

Just then, Lenalee's Innocence begins to dissolve its crystal form and Lavi quickly rushes to her side. When she asks him if she is truly still in this world, they are both brought to tears and Lavi holds her closely as Miranda's ability heals her wounds. The group continues on to Edo, with the converted akuma pushing the ship from behind to make greater haste. Lavi decides to name the akuma "Chomesuke" for its habit of putting "cho" at the end of its sentences. Even with Chomesuke's help, however, Miranda begins to reach her limit. Lavi apologizes for not doing a better job of protecting the ship and soon the decision is made to have the exorcists and the survivors leave on a lifeboat. As the sailors bid farewell and wish the exorcists luck, Lavi is deeply moved, remarking to Bookman that it is hard to take.

Upon arriving in Japan, Chomesuke suddenly receives a transmission from the Earl to gather in Edo. Although Chomesuke tries to resist, she eventually is forced to give in, although she maintains her sense of identity. The group decides to go with her and upon arriving, Lavi attacks the Earl, revealing their presence. The Earl is unharmed, but amused, and Chomesuke insists that to fight him would be suicide. Lavi disagrees, however, telling her that they have no intention of losing. Lavi and Krory attack again, this time intriguing Tyki, who insists on handling the matter himself. Lavi instantly recognizes him from Tim's memories, becoming enraged and insisting on fighting Tyki alone. Tyki recognizes him from when they played cards on the train and begins to taunt Lavi, making remarks about how hard it is to lose a friend, making Lavi furious. Tyki reveals, however, that Allen still lives, stunning all present. He says that Lavi may be able to see his friend soon if he can live long enough.

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, follow 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 Skinn Bolic. Kanda then stays behind to let the others go on. They then encounter Jasdero and Debitto 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 by using his seals to create a tornado and find the real key. Krory stay behind to fight Jasdevi (after they joined their bodies) and along with the remaining 4, they move 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" to an equipment type saving its accomodator (the other being Lenalee's) and ponders that one of them may have the Heart. After Allen starts to fight Tyki, Lavi goes to help Allen but is stopped by Road, who uses her power to create 'another' Lavi, of his past self. Road toys with Lavi's mind, making him fight allusions of his friends and mentally torturing him. Road shows him Lenalee supposedly dead in a coffin Lavi goes to hold her but the other Lavi merely states that she is just another Historic Relic and not worth caring about.It is then that Lavis other friends start rising from coffins and calling Lavis name. Lavi looks down and sees the 'dead' Lenalee is alive and she attacks Lavi with a knife. Lavi ignores his sight and attacks all of the illusions with a knife destroying them all. During this time, 'Allen' walks up to Lavi thanking him for not telling Bookman about the card he dropped when he was 'killed' by Tyki Mikk, 'Allen' is suddenly killed by the other Lavi. Illusions of Lenalee, Kanda, Bookman and Krory all stab Lavi causing him to collapse while the other Lavi states that if Lavi dies there is no bother as he is the 'real' Lavi and will merely take over, telling Lavi he is no longer a bookman and merely calling him number 49.

During this time, his 'heart' 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 attacks Road but fails to harm her, as her current body was not her true form. Lavi's current self managed to resurface and suppress his past self. Inside the Dream world Lavis Current self stabs himself with a knife in the chest to drive off his past self, another past Lavi appears but this one much younger being Lavi as a child, crying asking Lavi if he wants to be a bookman anymore, Lavi simply says he must leave and sometime his other side will find the answer. He then stabs the dream Allen through the heart, simultaneously stabbing Road through the heart within her dimension, defeating her.

Lavi begins to prepare to sacrifice himself to save the others by engulfing himself in a massive Fire Seal to attack Road in the real world, while Allen used his Crowned Clown to shield Lavi from the fire, keeping him from dying along with Road.

The group prepared to exit the ark, only to be attacked by Tyki Mykk, who had entered a sort of berserker mode and destroyed the only door leading out of the ark. Lavi and Allen battled Tyki while trying to protect Lenalee and Chaoji, but were serverly outmatched.

After Cross Marian appeared to aid them against Tyki, more sections of the Ark crumbled and disappeared. Lavi and Chaoji were caught on a crumbling piece and began to fall. Lavi attempted to lengthen his Innocence to save himself and Chaoji, but it had been damaged in the fight with Tyki and shattered when Allen grabbed it in an effort to pull them up. Like Kanda and Krory, he was lost in another dimension as the Ark disappeared; he was shown to have been revived along with the rest when Allen restored the Ark.He reunites with the others and they leave the ark.

Invasion of the Black Order Arc
Now back at the Black Order HQ, Lavi waits 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. To prevent him from attempting to aid in the battle and likely become injured, he, along with the similarly unarmed Lenalee, is locked in the infirmary. However, after Levellier coerces Lenalee into joining the battle, Lavi follows Lenalee to Hevlaska under the guise of wanting to record history but in actuality wishing to protect Lenalee. Lavi fights alongside Kanda, whose Innocence is also under repair, to protect Komui and later briefly battles the Level Four before he takes too much damage and is forced to withdraw, watching Allen and a re-empowered Lenalee finish off their foe.

After Lenalee becomes a crystal-type exorcist, Bookman cautions Lavi never to become the same and should he ever notice signs of such a change, they would have to leave the Order. Lavi acknowledges him, but expresses great distress when Bookman turns his back to him. Bookman also confides in Lavi that there may have been a reason that the Millennium Earl has allowed the Black Order to exist for so long, but does not elaborate on this.

During the headquarter's moving process, Lavi and Kanda are affected by a potion that turns them into children and later is affected by Komuvitan D. Later, however, he is returned to normal when Bak distributes an antidote to those in the headquarters.

Disappearance of Cross Marian Arc
After Allen opens a gate to the new headquarters in London, Lavi and Bookman immediately cross through, despite the fact that move-in is not until the next day. When questioned, they simply state that they have business to attend to and when Allen is taken into custody by CROW, they both follow. When Allen goes to meet with General Cross, Bookman instructs Lavi to observe the meeting, cautioning him to remember the Bookman code while Bookman listens in from another room. Lavi observes as Cross informs Allen that eventually the Fourteenth will erode Allen's personality and completely take over his body and that there is a secret side to the war between exorcist and Noah. When Lavi later comments on this to Bookman, he is told not to mention it again and Lavi becomes concerned. Roughly ten days later, he asks Bookman about Cross's disappearance and asks him once again about the secret side of the war. Bookman simply responds that they should be careful; since they were witness to Cross saying such a thing, they may be in danger.

Third Exorcists Arc
Lavi is later seen with Bookman and Chaoji in China. As with the other locations, a Noah appeared to challenge and/or delay the team while the Earl attacked the North American Branch.

Seed Of Destruction Arc
Both Lavi and Bookman were abducted by Fiidora and Lavi was infected by Fiidora's "parasite" in an attempt by the Noah to coerce Bookman into divulging all the information he possesses regarding the Fourteenth.

Powers and Abilities
Physical Prowess: While Lavi notes that his hammer doesn't actually seem to weigh anything to him, he is more physically gifted than most humans, able to lend his power to Allen and Kanda to hold back a Level Four Akuma.

Innocence
"Ōzuchi Kozuchi" (大槌小槌, Big Hammer, Little Hammer, lit. translation Ootsuti gavel): Lavi's Anti-Akuma Weapon is a size-shifting hammer. It can grow (満, Man) 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 hammer is destroyed whilst fighting in Noah's Ark but 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 Heaven 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 previously had 48 other names in the past.
 * His previous name was Deak.
 * He and Kanda are listed as "Friends?" in the fanbook.
 * Lavi has been 3rd in all the popularity polls held for D.Gray-Man, just behind Allen Walker andYu Kanda.
 * Lavi's favourite food is yakiniku, his least favourite food is wasabi and his hobbies are sleeping, reading, teasing Allen, and annoying Kanda.
 * Lavi is noted to have a particular fascination with numbers. He attributes this to his occupation as a chronicler.
 * Lavi and Bookman share a room.