Bao

Bao (暴 Bao), born Yenmei or Imbi Lei (雷 燕美 Rei Yenmei), is the current Heilei leader and a member of Takeru Shinoyama's so-called Dragon King's Palace Agency. She and Taipei carry out tasks for Takeru when they are not acting as his personal bodyguards.

Appearance
In girlhood, Bao did not particularly stand out from other black-haired, dark-eyed girls; she kept her hair tied back in two ordinary braids, and she wore a qipao over trousers. As a young woman, however, Bao has adopted a highly provocative fashion sense. She dyes her hair white and her bangs part-blue, which color-coordinate with her blue eyeshadow and white-blue left earring. She wears colored contacts, the light-green irises of which are rimmed with dark spokes. Their pupils are white.

Two sets of tattoos ornament her neck: the upper set, which covers her throat, comprises four tapered blades with holes each pointing in a cardinal direction; the second set ot tattoos rings the neck like a choker necklace and comprises a top 'layer' of black circles, a middle layer of inverted black triangles, and a thin black line that the triangle points touch.

Her outfit—a white shirt underneath a matching blue-grey blazer and trousers—could serve as business casual if Bao did not leave half of it unbuttoned, which she does. Straps for lightweight batons are sewn into the blazer's inner back. The blazer might also be covering a shoulder holster for handguns.

Like all members of the Heilei, Bao paints her fingernails black.

Personality
Bao has a quiet, disaffected demeanor that can be surprisingly effective at offsetting her loud appearance, especially when she is paired with the tall, hulking Taipei; on these occasions, she is often occupied with playing a mobile game and communicates in clipped sentences.

Only one subject rouses Bao's possessive passion: her little brother Xiaoyu. When her father's associate speaks ill of Xiaoyu, she reacts with snarling violence; when she texts Xiaoyu, she is expressively affectionate and emphasizes how much she loves him—though other times, her texts to him are extremely disturbed. As Xiaoyu's "knight in shining armor," she spies on her brother from afar and sometimes meddles in his affairs regardless of how he might feel about it.

Childhood
Bao—then Yenmei—and her little brother Xiaoyu, as the children of Heilei's paterfamilias, train from birth to become Heilei assassins. It may be assumed that Yenmei has already successfully completed her first official mission by the time it is Xiaoyu's turn since she is the older sibling.

Xiaoyu sets off on his first mission when he is perhaps around nine years old but fails to return under his own power, having lost all four limbs to Majiri Agakura in a freak encounter. When Yenmei is brought to his bedside, her father tells her that Xiaoyu will have to be repurposed as a t'ing-fu.

Rozan Shinoyama offers to equip the Heilei with state-of-the-art Shinoyama Group technology so useful as to make the t'ing-fu poison obsolete. The Heilei paterfamilias defers his answer and leaves with Bao, who, if she did not attempt to do so before, attempts now to kill her father for considering making Xiaoyu into a t'ing-fu.

Her father thwarts her murder attempt but does not hold it against her, for she remains his guard when he consults two male and one female Heilei over Rozan's offer. They also have guards. One man is guarded by Taipei. The other says that Xiaoyu is so useless as to be better off sold, what with losing to a little girl, but suggests that the paterfamilias could simply tell Rozan that Xiaoyu died if he is so determined to have his t-ing-fu.

Yenmei cleaves from the man the mouth that dishonored her father and Rozan in one breath, and then his arm when he attempts to stab her as punishment for insulting her brother. The man falls off his chair, dead or dying from blood loss. Yenmei's father praises Yenmei's fierceness, boasting that his daughter tried to kill him for his own transgression against Xiaoyu.

The Heilei ultimately sell Xiaoyu to Rozan. Taipei and Yenmei eventually enter Takeru Shinoyama's employ as members of his so-called Dragon King's Palace Agency, further strengthening the Shinoyama-Heilei ties.

Adulthood
Yenmei succeeds her father as the head of the Heilei and reinvents herself as the countercultural Bao. Despite working for the same family as Xiaoyu, she is only seen contacting him through text messages; her reconnaissance skills allow her to keep close tabs on him no matter the distance.

Shinoyama Mansion Fire
Two weeks after Corpse God reincarnates in the corpse of Takeru's runaway half uncle Polka Shinoyama, "Polka" returns to the Shinoyama estate for a reconciliatory lunch with Misaki Sakimiya as his plus one.

A fire breaks out in the Shinoyama mansion sometime later. Takeru orders Lemmings to capture the perpetrator and Yochigi to capture Gorō Shinoyama, whom she hauls back to a secure location. Bao, Taipei, Lemmings, and Yochigi are witnesses to Takeru's interrogation of Gorō.

That night, Rozan sends his granddaughter Sayo Shinoyama and Xiaoyu to live with Polka while Sayo's bedroom is rebuilt in the fire's wake. Xiaoyu is introduced to Sayo as a 'butler-in-training,' of sorts, but his actual duty is to serve as her guard. None of this will have escaped Bao's notice.

Inspectors Tsubaki Iwanome and Kōzaburō Arase visit the mansion the next day and discuss the fire and Fire-breathing Bug with Takeru, whom Bao and Taipei flank until the detectives leave. Iwanome does not seem the corruptible sort, but Takeru thinks it best to let him do what he wants for now rather than kill him, as Bao suggests, kill him.

Two days or so after the fire, Xiaoyu asks Bao via a text message if she can use the Heilei network to locate Miyabi Hosorogi.

A week after the fire, Phantom Solitaire releases a fleet of dirigibles displaying a simplified symbol on their sides as his comeback performance. Bao and her colleagues bear witness to them alongside the rest of Shinjuku.

A day passes.

Either by or some time before 3:00 AM, Bao texts Xiaoyu that she was unable to track down Hosorogi; she also reminds him to take care with Sayo and avoid catching the summer cold.

Bao, Taipei, and Yochigi are present in Takeru's office during the ensuing threeway conflict between Lemmings, Xiaoyu, and Solitaire on the rooftop of the Abandoned Building, which Takeru is receiving updates on from a man monitoring the building from a nearby vantage point.

With Lemmings' involvement confirmed, Bao asks Takeru what Rozan's bodyguards know about Lemmings. Takeru replies nothing, although he admits it is possible Lemmings was spotted at the fire, and assures her that Lemmings is under strict orders not to touch Rozan's bodyguards no matter what they do to him. He soon receives a video clip of a flock of enormous hands chasing after Solitaire as he escapes via balloons into the night sky.

Bao and her two colleagues are still on duty when Lemmings reports back to Takeru in the daytime. Takeru tells him to take time off. Once Lemmings leaves, Takeru instructs Taipei to contact the main Heilei forces and patrol the Building's vicinity in case Solitaire returns; he then instructs Bao to support Taipei by feeding him intelligence behind the scenes.

The next day, men from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department [TMPD] force the Building's occupants to evacuate while they conduct a search of the building. Bao informs Takeru of the situation Taipei catches Xiaoyu watching the proceedings and condescends to him about the value he has to the Heilei (none) and to the Shinoyamas.

While Misaki extricates Xiaoyu from the situation. Bao is already busy transferring the impressive amount of money in Taipei's bank account to Xiaoyu's bank account. She texts Xiaoyu to tell him of the deed, which she frames as proof of her love for him.

After night falls, someone either fatally or non-fatally strangles all the Shinoyama personnel who monitor the Building and steals their phones. As soon as Takeru reaches his office in the morning, he informs Bao and Taipei that Solitaire infiltrated the TMPD headquarters after yesterday's search-and-evacuation incident.

Taipei reports that after Lisa Kuraki and Polka left the Building, Misaki, Xiaoyu, and the "informant" returned; the informant was wounded, and Xiaoyu was missing one of his prosthetic limbs. He also reports that his bank account has been drained of money, which Takeru instructs Bao to investigate. Bao reports on the overnight attacks against the Shinoyama lookouts.

Either by or during the next day, Solitaire releases a deepfake Kuon Higuro/Ryouma Kannagi video soliciting information about the Bastard Children of Sabaramond. Kochou Eightport asks Taipei to pose as a customer for a story she is writing about the fortuneteller Polka Shinoyama. Taipei agrees after receiving Takeru's permission. That customers are streaming out of the Building when he and Eightport arrive does not deter them from ascending to the floor with the Fortuneteller Shop. Taipei attacks Soara Habaki the second he lays eyes on her, correctly believing that she must be the overnight assailant.

Bao updates Takeru of the situation from the rooftop of a nearby building, which as a vantage point allows her to see through the Building's windows. She is confident in Taipei's ability to identify the assailant through smell alone. The fight culminates in a bright flash of light and Civil A. Sabaramond's escape via autodefenestration, which she photographs or films and sends the photographs/clips to Takeru. She also instructs a subordinate to follow Civil, Soara, and Lulu.

Per Takeru's instructions, Taipei asks Polka to read his fortune and thereby identify the three interlopers (Civil, Soara, Lulu). Takeru immediately calls Polka to negotiate the details; "Polka" eventually suggests that he and Taipei reconvene at 6 PM three days from now, after he has had time to prepare the requested information. As soon as the call ends, he calls Bao and instructs her to monitor Polka's movements for the next three days; he adds that he does not mind if she bugs Polka's phone.

Later, the man tailing Civil et al. calls Bao with the news that the trio have clashed with an armed gang in an underground parking lot, which is now a crime scene. He will have trouble making his way inside.

Bao is still on the rooftop by the time Majiri Agakura encounters her in the early evening. As she bows to Bao, she announces that Xiaoyu is to become her little brother, which makes her and Bao future relatives. Bao ignores her in favor of typing a long text message to Xiaoyu on her phone—a deranged rant about how she has found and will kill the "homewrecker thief traitor [demon]" Agakura who stole Xiaoyu's limbs—so Majiri sweeps her into a waltz. Bao responds by hooking Majiri's wrist and neck with a chain, and declares that she is the only big sister Xiaoyu needs.

Bao admits as she fights Majiri that she must thank her for delimbing her brother as much as she hates her for it; in losing his limbs, Xiaoyu gained a refuge away from the accursed Heilei home. Their fight either reaches its peak or takes a dramatic turn when Majiri grabs the tip of one of Bao's batons; the cap of it slides off, revealing a hidden blade, and the blade successfully draws blood.

Takeru attempts and fails to reach Bao over the next two or three days. When she rejoins him and Taipei in his office in the aftermath of the Shinjuku war, she informs them that she independently forged a non-aggression pact with the Agakuras. Taipei calls her motives selfish, but Takeru supposes it is to his benefit to have an established negotiation pipeline to the Agakura Clan. He orders Yochigi to arrange a meeting with Hotokezaka, Rouge, Ootsuzura, and Tamate, and tells Bao and Taipei that the Heilei shall be handling defense for the time being.

Majiri meets with Takeru at the Shinoyama mansion later that day, with the meeting adjourning at night. "Polka" arrives at the mansion just as Takeru, with Bao and Taipei shadowing him, is seeing Majiri out.

Perhaps the next night or so, Sayo accompanies Xiaoyu, "Polka," Misaki, and Majiri to Arataya General Hospital. They manage to escape into the hospital unharmed despite being targeted by gunfire and a rocket launcher.

A lookout presumably sends word to Takeru or Bao herself about the active threat. When Bao arrives on the scene, some of the men are struggling to force open the front doors, which have been webbed shut. Two men sheltering behind a van spot Bao; one opens fire on her, assuming she is another Agakura. Bao neutralizes them and takes their shelter spot. The lookout confirms that Sayo has yet to emerge from the hospital, so Bao decides to prioritize securing its entrance.

Trivia

 * Bao's given name, Yenmei, is written as Imbi in the individual releases of certain chapters including 41, 30, and 59, with Bao's text message about Hosorogi in Chapter 30 re-included in 59. The Volume 7 edition of Chapter 59 updates 'Imbi' to 'Yenmei,' with the text message itself translated slightly differently. 'Yenmei' is used again in Chapter 69, when Bao is revealed to be Xiaoyu's sister.
 * Bao's batons have caps that cover hidden blades.