Lao Yamaguchi

Tora / The Tiger

Laozi

Crow Hiatsui (Brother)

Carmen Eastman (Sister)

Nova Jalanis (Brother)

Apostasy

The Diary of Arez Smythe with a Silent E

Fall

Babylon

Lao Yamaguchi is the protagonist of the Silent Trilogy.

## Appearance

Lao is first described as being a golden blonde with brown eyes. His eyes soon become dark violet, but occasionally turn brown when he is either using a great deal of magic or experiencing intense emotions. This is later explained as being due to his being 'blessed by Sunlight'.

Lao is half-Japanese, half-Irish-American. Most characters remark on his resemblance to his Japanese mother, Amaya Yamaguchi. Amaya herself says Lao resembles his other mother, Tiffany Darwin, though this appears to be due to grief as Lao and Tiffany only share a hair colour and an eye colour. Lao is generally regarded as a beauty, or cute. By the end of Silent, Lao has received a severe facial scar. The Prophet laments that Lao makes no effort to cover this scar, but Lao himself likes it.

In Silent, Lao is described as a pale child. He spends most of his time indoors and spends his months in the Hobart Re-education Centre not eating, consequently becoming extremely thin. In his diary, Arez often remarks on Lao being too thin. In Redemption, Lao's skin is described as a light shade of brown and he is often called 'chubby' due to a significant post-war weight gain. He has also grown his hair long, and it is described as hanging down his back. Lao is noted for his bad fashion sense. He often wears clashing colours, multiple shirts, layers dresses or skirts over pants, and alternates between being flat-chested and small-breasted. Lao has even put glitter on his work clothes. Carmen implies Lao is experimenting with clothes for the first time, as he never had the freedom to choose his own clothes before.

In Apostasy, Lao has cut his hair to chin-length and dyed it black. He has also developed a preference for black clothes, often wearing 'emo' clothes. Lao has become pale again due to the amount of time he spent indoors during the 18 months between Redemption and Apostasy.

## Personality

Lao is widely regarded as a simple-minded optimist. He is outwardly friendly to most people he meets and appears to believe the best of them until proven wrong. In many difficult situations, Lao expresses a belief that things will work out.

In reality, Lao's morality and views are more complicated than the Prophet realises. Lao has a severe mistrust of others, but pretends otherwise because he considers his cynicism a flaw. Consequently, Lao is friendly with most people he meets, but doesn't have many friends. He keeps non-family members at an arms length, to his own detriment.

Lao often makes impulsive decisions in all facets of life. This can range from deciding to personally involve himself in the affairs of demons, to putting candy in his cooking.

The welfare of dainisa is Lao's greatest priority, as he considers it his responsibility due to his heritage and role in the Australian Civil War.

Lao has undiagnosed and untreated ADHD for the majority of the trilogy. After seeking treatment, Lao is more focused and proves his intelligence, resolve and dedication to the point of being able to enter Tokyo University.

## Names

Lao's birth name is 'Torao Yamaguchi'. He is known by this name until age 4, when he is renamed 'Pixie Darwin' by his mother, Amaya Yamaguchi. At age 11, he changes his name to 'Tora' briefly before settling on 'Lao'.

Most characters refer to Lao by his then-current name, with the exception of Nova. Nova calls him 'Pixie'.

## Powers & Abilities

Lao has 'animakinesis', the ability to see and manipulate souls.

Lao has also used telekinesis and magically changed his eye colour.

Due to his long tenure as Minaji, Lao is one of the only dainisa who knows how to perform the yvoty, the ceremony to take magic away from other dainisa.

It is implied that being 'blessed with Sunlight' has made Lao appear more beautiful to others than he is.

## Relationships

### Crow Hotfire

Crow is the other person Lao is closest to.

### Arez Smythe

Lao's relationship with Arez is complicated.

### Kez Cooper

Lao is initially extremely sceptical of Kez. He assists Kez out of curiosity, and wants Kez to succeed out of altruism.

## Trivia

* 'Torao' means 'tiger tail' and is a masculine Japanese given name. It can be written to mean 'tiger king'.
* Lao's favourite food is nikujaga.
* In one scene, Lao appears to closet cosplay Kokichi Ouma from Danganronpa. It is unknown why this happens, as Lao does not like video games or anime.