Maseo Yamashiro

"Maseo is dead. I'm all that's left, Sarab. A phantom."

- Maseo to Oliver Queen

Maseo Yamashiro is one of the former mentors, former handlers, and an old friend of Oliver Queen. Maseo is also the husband of Tatsu Yamashiro, and the father of Akio Yamashiro. Sometime after Hong Kong, Maseo joined the League of Assassins, around the same time Sara Lance did. From then on, he came to be known as merely Sarab (سراب Phantom), refusing to use his former name entirely.

Oliver Queen's handler
After Oliver made an attempt to contact his family, he stopped Oliver and brought him back to Amanda Waller. To prevent Oliver from escaping yet again, Amanda threatened to make sure Oliver never leaves or she would kill Maseo's family. A few days later, Maseo ordered Oliver to kill Tommy Merlyn, as Waller couldn't risk Tommy finding out Oliver was still alive. Maseo told Oliver it's his own fault that he had to kill his best friend as when he logged onto his email account, it set off an account alert. He and Oliver devised a plan by kidnapping Tommy and claiming to Tommy that Oliver was dead and they hacked Oliver's account in hoping a family member would come. Maseo then "rescued" Tommy from Oliver who asked Tommy to get his father to pay a ransom.

Maseo later tasked Oliver to kill a terrorist, who was actually Edward Fyers' handler who had the intel on shooting down the Ferris air jet. After Oliver had the intel, Maseo told his son not to let Oliver use his laptop though Oliver eventually persuaded his son. Maseo at first yelled at his son but Oliver would quickly take the blame. Maseo then was asked to meet with Amanda.

After gaining intel on Li Khuan Hui, he told Oliver and Tatsu that he'd drop by the docks for an hour to meet a contact. After several hours, Tatsu and Oliver searched for him where they believed he was killed. Maseo later revealed that the agents were in lockdown after the triad killed three agents.

Sometime later, he and Oliver kidnapped Triad members and tortured them for information. They learnt that the Triad wanted to steal the Omega virus. They infiltrated the facility at which it was kept, taking out the guards. They soon realized that the virus had been stolen, learning via security footage that an employee had done so. He kidnapped the employee, who begged for his life and offered his limited money. As Oliver began to torture him, Maseo realized that he perhaps could have been drugged and made to steal the virus, shocking Oliver that he had tortured all for nothing. Fearing for his family, Maseo returned home to find blood over a photo and Akio, who claimed that a white-haired woman took his mother.

With the League of Assassins
Not long after an event in Hong Kong which Oliver referred to as "it", Maseo found his way to Nanda Parbat at the same time as Sara Lance, commenting that she was a strong warrior. From then, he was known only by the name Sarab (a translation of "Phantom", or "mirage").

In 2014, he was present when Nyssa al Ghul had Oliver brought to her, telling him that he had extinguished her father's patience and that he had forty eight hours to find Sara's killer. He disregarded Oliver's "confession" to killing Sara because she begged for death to get away from the League. He explained to Oliver that he had time to say goodbyes and gave him the location of where the trial by combat that Oliver had challenged Ra's to was going to take place. Forty eight hours later, Sarab watched as Oliver and Ra's fought. While initially being a relatively fair fight, if slightly leaning towards Ra's, Ra's soon beat down Oliver, stabbing him through the middle and kicking him off the mountain. It is unclear to what role he will have in the next half of this season.

Personality
Maseo was a ruthless operative who was willing to do whatever Waller ordered him. It was later revealed he got pressured because Waller threatened to murder his family if he did not comply. Despite that he and Oliver kill and torture people he believes it is for the greater good. After first seeing Oliver as a target the two became more of partners and friends later. He deeply cares for his family and was horrified when he realized Chie Na Wei captured his wife.

After an unknown event in Hong Kong, he seemed to distance himself from his past as he even took another name and mentioned that Maseo was "dead". He was then shown to be highly loyal to the League of Assassins and was willing to follow every order, even if it meant killing innocent civilians. He was however trying to inform Oliver as much as he could and tried to get him to tell the truth about Sara's death because he had no desire to watch Oliver die, implying his loyalty to his former friend.

Abilities

 * Peak of human physical condition: As a former A.R.G.U.S operative and member of the League of Assassins, Maseo is in incredible good condition.
 * League of Assassins training: It is assumed that Maseo gained typical League training as a part of his initiation. He likely possesses skills with a variety of melee weapons such as swords.
 * Expert marksman: Maseo is shown to be highly skilled with firearms, being able to shoot a cell phone out of Oliver's hand.
 * Expert swordsman: As a member of the League of Assassins, Maseo wielded a blade, presumably being extremely skilled in it.
 * Expert hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Maseo was shown to be highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, enough to beat Oliver in unarmed combat.
 * Skilled leader/tactician: Maseo is skilled at designing plans to break into secured buildings and abduct people from public spaces in broad daylight. He seems to have a leading role in the League as well as Nyssa mentioned he would lead the executions in Starling City if the dead line had passed.
 * Multilingualism: As a native Japanese Maseo speaks that language fluently, in addition to Chinese, English and presumably Arabic.

Trivia

 * An unspecified event happened between Oliver Queen and Maseo, after which Maseo went to join the League of Assassins and refused to be called by his real name.