Lenalee Lee

"To me the death of one companion... is like a piece of "the world" getting destroyed..."

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

Appearance
Lenalee Lee has dark green hair in the anime, while it is black in the manga but it appears to be a dark purple in the colour pages. Her hair falls halfway down her back and she usually wears it in long pigtails; however, part way through the Edo Arc she loses most of her hair when it is burned away during an intense battle with a Level 3 Akuma. After, her hairstyle was much more boyish, but recently her hair has grown back to shoulder length. She wears a modified exorcist's uniform which consists of a short coat and mini skirt. When not in combat she often wears a long black coat over this. Her Anti-Akuma weapon is her Dark Boots, which are thigh high when inactive until the Invasion of HQ arc, in which they transform from Equipment to Crystal type. After the transformation, they appear as blood red bangles on her ankles when not in use. During the beginning of the Edo Arc she briefly wears the newer version of the uniform, modified to have short shorts, however after her battle with Eishii it is destroyed. Recently, she has swapped out her old uniform for one that is a black jacket with red trim and a red frilled skirt.

Personality
Lenalee is extremely caring towards those she deems as friends, to the point of getting incredibly upset when she sees a friend deliberately put themselves in harm's way. Her feelings are explained by her loss of all family except Komui. Now, she feels that the friends she has made in the Order are her family. She can be quick tempered and most of her friends are quick to make sure they don't upset her. Because of her friendly and caring nature she can become very emotional when someone dies, even a stranger. She was devastated at the news of the casualties to the Order after the attacks in which six Exorcists were left dead, even though she had probably never known many of them. Lenalee has recurring dreams about the destruction of the Order that apparently Allen Walker once shared. Despite her cheerful nature, Lenalee hides deep sadness and fear below her peaceful exterior.

History
Komui's younger sister, and the assistant Head Officer, Lenalee is a 16-year-old Exorcist from China. Her parents were killed by an Akuma when she was very young and she does not remember anything before her parents death.

Because she was a Host, the Black Order took her away from her only remaining family member (Komui) against her will. For three years, she was never allowed to leave the Black Order headquarters, which felt like a prison to her. Because she repeatedly tried to run away, and attempted suicide, she had to be restrained and tied to her bed. However, once Komui joined the Black Order three years later, Lenalee became more at ease in the Headquarters.

It is implied during this event that Lenalee was not originally 'chosen' by her Innocence, but forcefully joined. It appears that Lenalee has secretly harbored a deep hatred for the Order as a result, even though she fights for them. She even expresses a hatred for God later in the series. However, with the Level 4 threatening to kill those that she cares for, she begins to truly want to synchronize with her Innocence and gain the power to protect her loved ones. This implies that while she might not have forgiven Malcolm C. Levrier, but she has forgiven God and the Innocence.

Lenalee suffers from a recurring dream where she is sitting alone in a post-apocalyptic world at the ruins of headquarters completely alone in the world. Since meeting Allen Walker, her dream altered to include his Innocence slipping away and once after his apparent death when she was weeping over his body as it lay across her lap. Allen is the only one she has told about this dream and Walker has even witnessed it for himself while he was unconscious after nearly being killed while in China but the 14th also appeared in it.

Introduction Arc
Lenalee is introduced into the series when the gatekeeper of the Black Order mistakenly identifies Allen Walker as an Akuma, stopping Yu Kanda from killing Allen. She is the one that shows Allen around the Black Order's HQ.

First Meeting with Millenium Earl Arc (Anime Only)
After Allen and Kanda return from the mission, she tries to distract Allen long enough so he can be surprised for a Welcome party. Later, she goes with Toma to find Allen who had engaged the Millennium Earl in battle to protect a kid named John. It is here that she reveals she is an Exorcist. After a fierce battle, she, Allen, and Toma return to HQ to inform John's father about the events with his son.

Later, as she is still trying to distract Allen from the party, she is rendered unconscious by Komui's support robot, Komlin 2, as it prepares her for "muscle grafting surgery" to improve her body. Once she regained consciousness, she destroyed the robot to save Allen who was moments away from an unnecessary surgery of his own.

The Rewinding Town Arc
Shortly thereafter, she traveled with Allen to "the town that does not go to a tomorrow" and found Miranda Lotto. Lenalee and Allen then help Miranda with her new job, but are all captured by Road Kamelot and her Akuma. She is at first unconscious when captured, but wakes up, by Miranda's Innocence. She and Allen then fight Road and her Akuma. Lenalee later stops Allen when he tries to "save" the Akuma that Road ordered to self-destruct. Allen becomes enraged with her for doing this and she slaps him for his outburst. Soon, they emerge victorious and their wounds return, Lenalee is given acupuncture treatment from Bookman to help with her injuries.

Millenium Swordsman Arc (Anime Only Arc)
Lenalee Lee and Allen Walker were dispatched by the order to find Kanda in Rome, because he hadn't contacted the Order for three days and retrieve an Innocence fragment. Lenalee and Allen arrived to find bounty hunters in the town and said to be the one who will retrieve Claudia Sardini, the daughter of the Sardini family. That night, Allen and Lenalee were in the Sardini's mansion for an announcement; the fiance of Claudia said that "the one who will retrieve her will recieve one fifth of my share". After that announcement, Lenalee and Allen climb the terrace of the mansion and talk with the father of Claudia, and explains that "every night a mere knight appears in her room" and that he he thought that it was only a dream. The fiance of Claudia appear and asks the Exorcists to help them, if they will help there will be no need for the hunters. Allen refuses the favor, stating they weren't there to grant a favor but to find their comrade and retrieve an Innocence fragment.

The Vampire from the Old Castle Arc
After learning about the Akuma's hunting of the Generals, Lenalee is assigned to find Cross Marian with Allen, Lavi, and Bookman. As they go in search of Cross, Lenalee had a dream about the HQ being destroyed and Allen dying, making her worry about him. She was moody and Allen realized she hadn't really spoken to him since she slapped him. Allen asks her about it and she admits that she was furious with Allen for sacrificing himself. She then tearfully accepts his public apology at a train station.

Later, she realizes that Allen was not on the train with them and she forced Lavi to go find him. After finding out that Cross had come in contact with a "vampire", Allen and Lavi had been forced to hunt. She stays in the village with Bookman to wait for them. Before they leave, she threatens Allen and Lavi not to get bitten as she believed in the whole "vampire" story. She then becomes happy as they return with Arystar Krory who is revealed to be an Exorcist.

Suman Dark's Fallen Arc
As the group continues to look for Cross in China, Lenalee saved Timcampy from being eaten by a cat and she used her Chinese to help the group get around. She soon found a brothel where Cross stayed (and ran up bills) where supporters of the Black Order operated. It is then they got news about Cross's recent movements.

After heading off to sea, Allen and Lenalee find Suman Dark in his Fallen One form, which brought back painful memories for Lenalee. She remembered as a child seeing a Fallen One resulting from the experiments performed where Innocence was forced upon non-hosts. Together, she and Allen try to save Suman. Allen is absorbed into Suman when he tries to rescue a little girl trapped in his body. She was forced to leave Allen behind to save the little girl.

With some help from Lavi, she looks for Allen, but is unable to find him. They came upon the spot where he was left to die by Tyki Mikk, but he is no longer there and the images recorded by Timcampy left her to fear the worst. She learned that Allen exceeded his limits to rescue Suman Dark and was then attacked by Tyki and apparently had his Innocence destroyed. Bookman called Lavi through golem asking them to return to port. A man from the Asian Branch named Wong, explains that Allen was found and is being held at their branch. She instantly asked Wong to let her see Allen. But Wong told her they are to continue their journey, they'll be saying goodbye to Allen in China. Lenalee asked if that meant Allen is dead, Wong replied telling her to understand (implying he's dead). She left on the ship for Edo in a deep depression.

Edo and Asian Branch Arc
After bonding with Anita, who was helping the Exorcists to reach Edo, and hearing her unshakable faith that Cross was still alive, Lenalee believed Allen may still be okay. When the ship is attacked by a Level 3 Akuma, Lenalee left the ship to fight it alone. With her Dark Boots to its maximum invocation during the battle against the Level 3 Akuma on the sea, Lenalee kills the Akuma, using her ultimate technique, Shittsui no Tougi: Tetsukase (Falling Footsteps: Iron Shackles), and nearly loses her life. During this attack, Lenalee's long hair was burned off as a result of extremely high levels of air friction, leaving it boyishly short. When Lavi went off the ship to search for Lenalee, who had yet to return after the attack by Akuma, he found a modified Akuma (Chomesuke/Sachiko) who held a large crystal with Lenalee encased inside.

Chomesuke/Sachiko claimed that the Innocence took on this form to protect Lenalee. Because of this, it was presumed that Lenalee's Innocence may be the "Heart", which the Earl and the Black Order are looking for. However, Lavi, after learning about how Allen's Innocence saved his life by filling in a piece of his heart, wondered why there were two "instances" and if they are related somehow.

She then thanks Anita and the crew as they leave. Anita tells her that she should grow her hair back because she was beautiful with it and tell her to take care of Cross Marian. As Lenalee makes the promise, she realized that Anita was hit by Akuma and that she was going to die. Lenalee became devastated as she watched her die and left with the others to Edo.

When the group arrived in Edo, Lenalee was more of a hindrance than anything else as her legs were in such bad condition that she was barely able to walk, let alone fight. She was forced to sit back and watch as the Battle of Edo began. After the Earl wiped the city out with a single attack, Lenalee was separated from Lavi and her Innocence once again took on the crystalline form to protect her. The Earl and the Noah witnessed this and shifted their attention to her, believing her Innocence to be the Heart. With the Noah and Akuma keeping the other Exorcists distracted, the Earl attempted to destroy Lenalee's Innocence. Allen returned from the Asian Branch by way of the original Noah's Ark and repelled the Earl with his incredible new Crown Clown Anti-Akuma Weapon just in time to rescue Lenalee and force the enemies to retreat.

Noah's Ark Arc
Her emotional reunion with Allen was short-lived because she was kidnapped by Lero and pulled into Noah's Ark. The Earl's plan is to destroy her along with the old Ark as it would disappear with everything and everyone in it, once it was downloaded to the new Ark. This plan backfires however, as Allen, Kanda, Krory, Lavi, and Chaoji follow Lenalee into the Ark where they successfully defeat the Noah and capture the old Ark and the Akuma Egg.

Invasion of the Black Order Arc
Upon her return to the Black Order's Headquarters, Hevlaska removed the Innocence from Lenalee's legs, to find that her Innocence changed into a black liquid and has drop to 10% synchronization. This puzzled the many members of the Order, including Hevlaska herself. When a Level 4 Akuma began assaulting the Order, Lenalee expressed a true desire to re-sync with her Innocence, which at that point truly began to express sentience. Her Innocence went to Lenalee, still in liquid form, which she drank, causing a large amount of her blood to exit her body through cross-shaped cuts on her ankles (which look similar to the cross on Allen Walker's left hand). Her blood then coalesced into a vague angelic form before spreading over her legs and taking on the form of new Dark Boots. With her new weapon, together with Allen's help, she defeated the Level 4 Akuma. Lenalee's new boots were thought to be a Parasitic-type because they are easier to control with her emotions, noted by Lenalee herself However, they did not change her physical appearance, therefore they were called an evolved Equipment-type, a "Crystal-type". They seem to be very strong considering she fought on-par with a Level 4 Akuma without using any special techniques.



Komuvitan D Arc
During the HQ move, Lenalee began talking like a cat (along with Bookman) due to a potion that Miranda accidentally dropped along with the things she was holding. She was a part of the group attacked by the Generals infected by Komuvitamin D. However, Bak Chan is able to cure them all of the infection.

Disappearance of Cross Marian Arc
Shortly after the events surrounding the "Black Order's Destruction" she travels with Allen, Johnny, and Komui to the new Headquarters At this point, she seems to have begun growing her hair out again because her hair reaches her shoulders now.

On their way, she and Johnny mentioned to Allen that he does not act as politely when he talks to them probably because he is comfortable with talking to them and they have become much closer. Shortly after arriving, Allen Walker was granted a brief meeting with Cross Marian. Upset by how suddenly and harshly Allen was taken away, she waited up late for his return to see what was wrong.

Allen decided not to tell her what Cross said about being the 14th Noah or that he would kill someone he loved one day. She is later seen reacting with shock to the announcement that Allen was the 14th, and she is even more shocked when Allen says if the 14th does take over him that he should be killed.

Third Exorcists Arc
Despite the revelation concerning the 14th Noah, Lenalee still deeply cares for Allen, and she does not feel uncomfortable being around him as shown when she went to check on him after completing her mission, and was worried about his fever. However, she seems to have noticed that when Allen originally woke up, he seemed like a different person, and is very concerned about his welfare. Howard Link, who is waiting outside the door berates Lenalee for sleeping in there as he could not be in a room with a lady in an immodest position and therefore couldn't carry out his duties.

Lenalee, Allen, Houshi and Tokusa travel to the Asia branch to find Kanda as they had been assigned a new mission to Istanbul. She is later seen in Greece with Klaud Nine, Koushi, and Timothy Hearst faced with a Noah in the shape of a Dragon.

Lenalee and Timothy witness Koushi mutate after being consumed by the Dark Matter from Alma Karma's cells, she is blasted by Koushi. Because of the Third Exorcists going loose by Alma's rage against the Black Order, several of the Exorcists, possibly including Lenalee, are forced to kill the Third Exorcists before they made any more damage. Lenalee is seen crying in shock as she kneels before an impaled Koushi while hearing the Noah's announcement that Kanda has awakened the 14th in Allen and that Allen will become a seed of destruction to the Order.

Seed of Destruction Arc
Later, she is seen eating with the rest of Order. Lenalee hesitates and worries about her missing friends, and Allen, who is now in prison. Reever and several other scientists attempt to make her feel better.

Powers and Abilities
Enhanced Speed: Even without her Dark Boots activated, Lenalee is extremely quick and agile. This, of course, is only enhanced when her Innocence is activated.

Innocence
Dark Boots (黒い靴 (ダーク・ブーツ), Dāku būtsu): An equipment-type Innocence, Lenalee's initial version of the Dark Boots take the form of a pair of thigh-high boots. When activated the top part of the boots unwrap to her knees and a green stripe is shown down her leg from the top to the bottom and a green energy is emitted from her ankles. She is capable of great acrobatic feats and can easily deal with Level 1 Akuma. It seems to dramatically increase her leg strength, allowing her to jump vast distances, land from high falls uninjured and deliver devestating kicks.


 * Enbu: Kirikaze (円舞「霧風」, Waltz: "Misty-Wind"): Lenalee stirs up a destructive tornado with a whirling kick of her Dark Boots.

Level Two: After her synchronization with her Innocence increases, Lenalee's boots are modified to enhance her abilites. When released Lenalee gains more weight, power and speed. The green energy strips are replaced with circles with a cross mark on them, and her boots now have knee pads and straps around her thighs. She can fight on par with a Level 3 Akuma with her Innocence in this form. Before her boots evolved her synchronization rate was 86%.


 * Onkyou no Tougi: Otokase (音響の踏技 「音枷」, lit. Stepping Skill of Sound: "Sound Shackles"): Lenalee becomes able to interface with sound waves, solidifying the sound of each step into a surface, which allows her to travel at the speed of sound.
 * Suijou no Tougi: Mizukase (水上の踏技 「水枷」, lit. Stepping Skill of Water: "Water Shackles"): Lenalee becomes able to interface with water, enabling her to walk on liquid surfaces.


 * Shittsui no Tougi: Tetsukase (失墜の踏技 「鉄枷」, lit. Falling Footsteps: "Iron Shackles"): Upon maximum invocation, Lenalee's power condenses onto her Dark Boots, meshing them into a morass of blades, carrying an extremely high weight. Assisted by Eshii's gravity shackles, this attack hit with the weight of 40,000 metric tons. which is equivalent to a meteor.

Crystal Type (結晶型, Kesshō-gata): After Lenalee's synchronization rate with her Innocence fell to dangerously low levels, it was brought into question whether or not the Innocence was starting to reject her as an Accommodator. Hevlaska noted that this was not so, but that it seemed, instead, that the will of the Dark Boots was changing, and that it may be preparing to evolve.

When attempting to merge with her Innocence again, the cube form it had taken liquified, and Lenalee took this as an invitation to ingest the Innocence directly. The liquid passed through her body and emerged from two cross-shaped wounds on her ankles, one on each, where it merged with the blood that spilled out with it and reformed around her legs.

When at rest, the newly formed Innocence takes the appearance of bangles around her ankles, but when activated, the boots take the form of thigh-high stiletto boots with kneepads and slightly separated cuisses for her upper legs. When she wishes to accelerate beyond the boot's normal speeds, flaps at the back of both of her heels unfurl to increase her speed dramatically, though initially she has trouble gauging how quickly she's moving.



Lenalee notes that the boots don't react as her initial equipment type boots did, and rather than having to use her own body to tell the boots what to do, they seem to react simply to her thoughts.

Later analysis reveals that the new boots aren't actually 'crystals', at all, but rather an unidentified metal made from merging Lenalee's blood with the Innocence, and that because of this, theoretically speaking, as long as Lenalee has blood in her body she should be able to regenerate her Dark Boots by using more of her blood, even if the boots she's wearing at the time were to break.

Trivia

 * She has no memory of anything before her parents' death.
 * She wears shorts under her skirt, according to an Omake, but they were not seen or shown in her latest appearance.
 * Lenalee came 4th in almost every popularity poll, always behind Kanda, Allen and Lavi. She came third on the latest popularity poll, beating Lavi.
 * Lenalee's favourite food is Chocolate Cake and her hobby is cooking..
 * In both the manga and official fanbook, according to Allen, Lenalee is very cute.
 * In the one shot Zone Lenalee isn't a member of the Black Order and instead runs a cafe with Komui in China.