Chapter 233

Saying Goodbye to A.W. - The Way of the Three (A.W（アレン・ウォーカー）に別れを告げる・The way of the three, A.W. (Aren Wōkā) ni wakare o tsugeru ・ The way of the three) is the two hundred and thirty third chapter of the D.Gray-man manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. It was published in Jump SQ Rise on July 22, 2019.

Color Spread
Allen Walker, The Earl of Millennium and Cross Marian are standing back to back with Timcanpy's by Allen's side. Allen is wearing, he is holding a clown mask with his left hand and waving with his right hand. The Earl, in his human appearance with his Noah skin tone and amber eyes, has his usual ocher and green suit and gloves. His top hat is covered with yellow and orange flowers and rests partially on his head while he hold the corner with his right hand. Cross Marian is wearing the first version of the exorcist uniform and black gloves. He is smoking and holding his handgun "Judgement" in his right hand.

Short Summary
The chapter opens with a moment of Marian Cross's past, where he arrives too late to save a comrade from the Akuma miasma, and is forced to engage a higher level akuma seemingly responsible for his fallen comrade's death.

We are then shown a glimpse a little further ahead in time, when Allen, or "Red" is still living within the Carvey Circus, and how he is treated (or more accurately, mistreated) by the carnies and staff. The chapter shows us more of the child's past, and how much he struggled through on a day-to-day basis, and why a certain man's dog  meant so much to him during the later part of his stay within that place.

The chapter shows us that suffering is not only a word all-too familiar to the three characters given the limelight of this chapter, but that it can have different meanings, and be experienced in different ways by different people, as we are shown in the last half of the chapter Mana living within the circus as well, and the internal struggle his psyche faces....

Long Summary
The start of the chapter opens within a door to a church or cathedral opening. It's dark and seemingly deserted, not even a single candle appears to be lit. We see the General Marian Cross is the person whom has entered the building, perhaps a few years younger as his hair is seemingly less unkempt, and sporting the Black Order's coat. He is looking at a man, presumably either a fellow exorcist, or the church's priest, hanging from a ginormous spider's web almost symbolically in front of three stained glass windows. Marian is focused on the man before him, and it appears he has arrived too late to assist, for as the man weakly calls out "Is that you, Cross...?" his forefinger falls off his hand like that of a porcelain doll's when one is broken upon the floor, or in midair- as ''the guy is trapped in a spider's web. ''

"Didn't I tell you to forget about me? To focus only on your mission?" Cross asks, his face unreadable from the distance and because of the shadows surrounding them within the building. The figure, who's face is largely unseeable, can only be in a tremendous amount of excruciating agony as the Akuma Miasma is eating away at him- the familiar star pattern of the virus creeping it's way up his neck from under his clothes with an ominous 'crack,' 'crack,' and the rest of his hand breaking off and falling to the floor. Whomever this individual is, we are shown in these panels in that moment, that he does not have much longer to live.

Cross apologizes to the man, a cigarette in his mouth, his eyes hidden beneath his bangs and his signature mask, unreadable to the audience as he says he came too late to help. Despite the fact that he is dying, the unknown individual forces his head up as the symptoms of the miasma have now completely covered all visible parts of his epidermis, and smiles - offering Marian Cross comfort. "Forget about it, Find what you're looking for...my friend!" More cracking is heard as the man cries out, and his head breaks apart  from his hanging torso as the miasma kills him- the overexertion of moving his head to meet Cross's eyes and encourage the General in his final moments being what likely  only then is he released from the webbing, his body likely breaking to ashy pieces off-screen.

Marian has now raised his gun, and is prepared to fight as an akuma that can only be described as looking like a certain sunflower designed character from a popular 8-bit game if they had one eye, and wore a gothic lolita-styled dress, looms over the cadaver of the General's fallen friend, grinning maniacally as it prepares to enter combat. Other akuma appear, crying out for Marian Cross's death as the man fires at the mechanical demons. He is talking to no one, but asks a question out loud; "Hey God? Is this mission...more important than human life?" He then scoffs as the akuma madly cry out for his death with cries of "Kill him! Kill him!," commenting that whomever he is asking, they are "silent as always, huh?" The lead akuma appears before him, and we finally see a glimpse of what can only be pure rage as he shoots at the akuma, presumably killing them off-screen, as we are given a glimpse of the stained glass windows again.

After the battle, Marian is standing at a pew with Timcanpy, mouth open, showing a holographic image of a young, disheveled boy- the person known as Red, holding his arm and looking into the distance with a pained expression. It becomes more clear that in this part of the chapter, Marian is the window for the audience into the events he has seen. "That's a strange arm on this brat, huh? Marian is studying the child's figure closely, surmising that the cross on the child's arm could very well be innocence.

"There should be abnormalities if it's innocence...I don't see those signs in him." The General muses as he takes a puff from his cigarette. He goes on to muse about the image the golem has shown him, saying that even if the child is an accomodater, he does not have time to deal with him. "Plus, who knows what will happen if Mana gets near Innocence in his current Condition? Of all the bad timing..." The General studies the holographic child's face, wondering if he should kill him to prevent Mana's current emotional state from being triggered by the Noah's reaction to Innocence. He recalls that the "Allen" whom became Nea's host 35 years ago should at least be in his thirties. He cannot believe that a child could be the host he is looking for. The note of the previous Allen's age not only establishes a likely timeline for the audience to follow, but is likely a nod to "The Picture of Dorian Gray," which is known to be part of the inspiration for the Noah clan and their genetic condition.

General Marian Cross ponders his options, on the one hand, he does not want to kill a kid, but he acknowledges to himself that Mana takes priority if the situation calls for it. A puffed up and plump Timcanpy, whom until now had been dutifully assisting the man, begins to chatter in protest at the notion, and Marian insists to the golem that he does not want that to happen either if he can avoid it. He speaks to Timcanpy, and essentially here recaps what has occurred in previous chapters for the audience; that Mana has forgotten he is the Millennium Earl, and is 'unwell.' The man is wandering around, searching for the fourteenth, hiding from the reality that he had killed him in the past. Marian seems to be musing more and more to himself, rather than the golem, as if he is mentally exhausted from a long series of trials due to these unfortunate events, and comments that there is no way of telling when Mana will become the Earl Again. We see an ominous, shadowed image of the Millennium Earl as he was revealed andTh introduced to the readers in earlier chapters as a smiling caricature of a figure in his "suit." Marian surmises then that because of Mana's fragile mental state, this is the perfect time for as far as the Heart  is concerned, to destroy the Earl, once and for all.

As Marian is racking his brain over this, we see the image of the child again, looking downwards forlornly, and his battered arm with the cross in the center foreground, before cutting to a frustrated Marian, asking "Jeez- what to do...? Will we ever manage to get there?" As if he were battling with his own morals, the circumstances of Mana, whom he has seemingly been tracking for a long time, and the intricate web of events the General finds himself within. The panels cut from the hanging remains of the unknown priest and the web capturing his remains, and to a large Circus Tent, as the spotlight of the chapter shifts to the next lead, and the next perspective we the audience follow. XxXxXxX

In the next panel as the story continues, this time from the perspective of a young red, we see he is being held down as the carnies forcefully view his arm. "Awesome! It really is like a monster's arm." The ringleader exclaims gleefully as the adult male uses his leg against the small of the child's back to pin him down, and uses his free hand to pull back the struggling boy's shirt sleeve, revealing "Red's" mangled appearing arm. By the sign of bottles and cups in the background, it is implied that the men have been drinking heavily, and have decided to bully the child as a means of entertainment as they poke his arm, wondering if it is some sort of contagious condition. The leader laughs, claiming "it's no big deal, right Red-arm?" He sits back on a pile of suitcases, straw, and blankets, a wine bottle in hand as he continues to laugh as the small child picks himself up, not saying anything as he holds his arm defensively. "C'mon, We're both the same after all, bought and sold, right?" He drinks like a glutton from the bottle, giving a sense of pause to the reader as he continues his twistedly entitled monologue and rationing behind treating a child the way he has as he looks down and to the side of the kid. "You're better off, actually. You were a lost cause from the start. I on the other hand, have noble blood. I shouldn't be in a place like this!" From what is implied, the audience can assume that perhaps this bully is an illegitimate child, sold inter service of the circus perhaps- however it is not this man's story, but the child we are inclined to view, as in the next two panels we are shown a close-up of the frustration and hurt on the child's face as he looks in disgust at the drunk man.

The story cuts to the kitchen, where the Circus's chef is seemingly enraged, and throws a bowl at the boy's head, the child just managing to block the blow with his forearm. "There's no food left for you! Hurry up and go feed the lions!" He orders the boy, sending him off with an overloaded serving cart for the animals. Red gives it his all, but collapses from hunger before finishing his chore. He reflects on the man who had held him down, believing the man to be a weakling, and knowing he is different from that cruel person. He tells himself that "One day, he'll definitely find a place he belongs," and gets up, wrapping his hands around the cart and attempts to push it again, turning his head for a moment as a glimpse of a figure sitting, arms wrapped around their legs, seemingly upset under a tree. It is Mana, and next to him is his dog, 'Allen.' The boy quietly watches him for a moment, before continuing his evening's work. 'Allen' the dog watches the boy as he leaves, and we see a panel of the circus tents with stars around them, allowing us to understand that it is nighttime.

On the next page, we see Red sitting by a cleaning bucket, scarfing down a loaf of bread he had stolen from the kitchens when the chef left him with a task of cleaning all the kitchen's pots and bowls from the evening meal, having chosen to go off to nap rather than do his job. Red is clearly in survival mode, as he pauses from eating the bread to look around nervously, hoping he is not caught with the stolen bread. Nearby, a crate full of performance equipment is bumped over, and the boy panics, clearly worried he has been found and will be punished for taking food. It is not one of the circus members, but 'Allen' the dog, poking his head up from the numerous toys and equipment, looking at the boy adoringly as only a dog with a tiny clown hat can. The boy is shocked for a moment, and managed to choke down the bite of bread caught in his mouth, breathing a sigh of relief he has not been found by any other people, and remarking that the dog had startled him. The dog picks up a ball from inside the crate, and runs away, seemingly to play. Red panics, crying that the dog had stolen a ball, and that he feared that he would be starved further if he lost a prop piece. The boy chases after the dog in the snow away from the tents, whom is running ahead with the ball as Red desperately calls after him. We see that the boy is slowing as the dog gains distance, until Red falls to his knees, weak and spent from hunger and the exhausting work the circus performers put him through. He lays in the snow on his back, gasping for breath, cursing the dog and fearing that with the prop ball it had stolen his next meal. The child wonders how long it has been since he had a decent meal before that one loaf of bread, gazing at the stars and wondering over his circumstances. Just as he closes his eyes, seeming to be about to give in to fatigue, the ball is dropped unceremoniously on his face, and bounces to the ground. There is 'Allen,' the dog panting and looking down at the young boy, who gets up slowly, watching the dog as it sits by the ball. "You...." Red says in surprise, and attempts to grab the ball. The dog however has been trained very well by his master, and lifts up the squeaky ball with his front paws, seeming to be playing with the boy as the next images show Red desperately trying to get the ball from the dog as it maneuvers around him. "What's up with you?!" The child cries in exasperation as the dog bounces the ball on it's head, then seemingly attempts to pass the ball to Red, accidentally hitting the child in the face with the prop. 'I'm being played... I'm being played by a dog' The boy realizes. He falls back in the snow, giving up as the dog watches him, "Just do what you want, okay? I'm tired already...I can barely move." The child says in frustration at the animal as he closes his eyes, seeming to have given up all hope. Allen the dog leans down, licking the boy's cheek, woofing happily at the child as the boy looks in shock at the animal. The dog goes then, leaving the ball with the child, and heading back for the tents, as Red sits there, wondering what is with the animal as the panel closes in on the prop ball. XxXxXxX

For the final perspective of the chapter, the story cuts to Mana, waking up from a dream of Nea's  last words to his brother;  ''"...Na...King...Mana....Keep walking...." ''Through the image of Mana's expression, we see the heartbreak, sadness, hurt, and anxiety the man has been through as he recalls those words, and this image allows us a better understanding of how the loss of his brother has broken the incarnated Millennium Earl. There is a quote by Lemony Snicket from his book, "The Bad Beginning," which the editor of this summary believes applies to this moment the audience is shown;'' “If you have ever lost a loved one, then you know exactly how it feels. And if you have not, then you cannot possibly imagine it.” ''However, if there was a moment in time where a reader were to be given a picture of the emotional torment within the mind of a person whom has lost someone whom meant so much to their world, and has had to live without moving on from that loss, the image of Mana waking from his nightmare would be it.

However, Mana's nightmare as we learn, both figuritively and literally, has yet to end. For he is not awake yet, but instead finds himself in the center of the very same field before the mysterious Campbell Residence, which our protoganist, Allen Walker, finds himself in his mind's world within previous chapters, (see Chapter 213). His expression is one of genuine surprise and shock, like a child not believing what they are seeing as he looks across the field. "Nea?" He asks the air, calling for his sibling as he tilts his head to the side, "Nea, mother...where are you two?" He calls, and we are given another view of the Campbell Residence and the dead tree which stands alone before the manor, like a lone flag at the end of a battle, or a beacon for sailors to follow in the night.

"Where...?" Mana begins to ask, his face contorting into a look of shock as he realizes where he is, the image of the manor and the tree becoming distorted as the clouds and the sky in the background darken around them, perhaps giving the reader a look into what the sight of his former home appears in the traumatized Noah's mind. A Thud is heard, and Mana slowly turns his head-- we see his look of shock turn to fear and terror as there stands the image of the Millennium Earl, further in the field, and approaching Mana with a maddening look from under the brim of his top hat, and a cheshire (or slasher) grin denoting to the reader that something is, in laymen's terms, about to go down. Mana's expression is shown to be of absolute horror as he meets eyes with his other ego, and as he tries to find his voice, to cry out "stay away...!" we see his human image shift into that of his younger self, which bears a striking resemblance to not only Nea, but Allen Walker. Mana is paralyzed with fear, and has reverted to that of a child in appearance, at the sight of his alter ego.

"Stay away...Don't come near me!" He cries as the figure of the Millennium Earl stalks towards him in the grass. "STAY AWAY!" Mana screams, holding his hands to his head in a reflection shown to the reader within the Earl's monocle.

In the next panel, the current, adult Mana finally wakes from the nightmare in a state of panic, his bedsheets flying hazardously away from him as he has his arms raised defensively, gasping for breath as the other carnies sleep off their drunken stupor. Pearl-sized beads of sweat roll down his face as he breathes heavily from the panic attack his dream has caused  the grown man to have, and a whimper comes from Allen the dog as he rests his muzzle on the foot of his master's bed, the dog seemingly having returned to his master off-screen after leaving the boy in the snow. The animal gazes up at the man, and offers him comfort as Mana registers where he is after a moment of recollection. Mana then picks up the dog, and holds him, "Allen...thank you Allen, I had a bad dream..." He tells the dog, whose face we are shown to be smiling as the wonderful ball of fur rests his chin on his master's shoulder, continuing to comfort Mana as only a dog can when his person is in an emotional state.

"I'm fine now." Mana says, perhaps more to himself than his beloved companion, his eyes momentarily obscurred by his bangs from the reader's view as he cradles the dog's head and holds the animal close. Upon turning the page however, we see the same look of terror and fear as Mana quietly wonders 'Nea...where are you, Nea...?'

"I'm right here..." He chokes in the darkness of the circus carnie's tent. And we are left seeing a broken man holding his companion dog in silent pain, with the words at the end of the chapter telling us that Mana is truly 'Tormented by Nightmares...'

Characters

 * Red (flashback)
 * Mana Walker (flashback)
 * Cosimov (flashback)
 * Garvey Circus Ringmaster (flashback)
 * Unnamed servant (flashback)

Places
The Garvey Circus (Past)

Campbell Residence (Dream)

Chapter Notes

 * Cross Marian is wearing the first exorcist uniform shown in the series (there have been three different shown).
 * The priest seems to know Cross well and calls him "friend".
 * It is unclear what are the level of the akumas in this chapter. The big one is too intelligent to be a level 1 and the smaller ones don't have the typical round shape of level 1. They don't have the humanoid shape of level 3 and 4 so they likely are level 2 akumas. However level 2 akumas (unlike 1 and 3) are notorious for having very various appearance and there is no such example of swarms of identic level 2 akumas for now. It is thus possible that the smaller akumas are spawns of the big level 2 akumas as part of its unique dark matter ability.
 * Cross worried about what might happen if Mana gets near Red's innocence. As a matter of fact, Innocence has been shown capable of bringing out the Noah within people (with the cases of Tyki Mikk and Allen Walker).

Trivia

 * A short time after the publication of the chapter, the author informed on her instagram account that the dog Allen that is primarily feated in this chapter has been inspired by a real life dog she met and that passed away a short time before.