Saying Goodbye to A.W. - Concealment and Confidant

Saying Goodbye to A.W. - Concealment and Confidant (A.W（アレン・ウォーカー）に別れを告げる・掩蔽と腹心, A.W. (Aren Wōkā) ni wakare o tsugeru ・ enpei to fukushin) is the two hundred and twenty ninth chapter of the D.Gray-man manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. It was published in Jump SQ Rise on July 19 2018.

Cover
A smiling Allen is holding a big heart under his left arm that reads "Love you", as he walks forward with his left leg raised. Meanwhile, Timcanpy has a huge grin on his face as he sits upon Allen's head. In the background, Allen's shadow can be seen behind an arch, which is decorated with vines, flowers and stars.

Short Summary
As Chaozii and Krory arrive into the town to join the search, Allen and Johnny have managed to escape safely with the help of General Tiedoll and Kanda.

While Tiedoll and Johnny talk outside the carriage, Allen remains silent after finding out about Timcanpy's death, but silently worries about the consequences of telling the others about Apocryphos.

He begins to summon the Ark, and assures Kanda that he will deal with the human-shaped Innocence himself. When Johnny eventually peers into the carriage, he is shocked to see that both Kanda and Allen have disappeared.

Long Summary
Chaozii and Krory meet with the search units who are still in the process of combing the town in search of Allen and Johnny—they speak with three Finders who had originally accompanied General Tiedoll, but ended up staying to help with the search. The Finders inform the two Exorcists that they have not yet been able to locate Allen or Johnny, and the only ones who had left the town are General Tiedoll and Kanda.

When Chaozii wonders how Kanda is doing, the Finders maintain that he is probably fine, despite throwing a massive tantrum in the carriage as he is seemingly escorted back to the Order's headquarters by the General. With that, the Finders are ordered to escort Chaozii and Krory to their Emergency Headquarters, which is located in a church. As the two Exorcists make their way there, Krory is silently relieved that Allen had managed to escape, however Chaozii does not look impressed.

Now that they have managed to escape the town, Johnny, with Timcanpy's remains in hand, takes a moment to join General Tiedoll outside the carriage. While Johnny initially claims he brought Timcanpy out with him because the carriage is cramped and Timcanpy needed fresh air, he also explains it is also because it is painful for him to see Allen's reaction to Timcanpy's death; he has neither shed a tear nor spoken a single word.

Discussion then turns to Apocryphos. Johnny wonders if human-shaped Innocence could even exist, and if it does, considers the possibility that it is the Heart. Moreover, he wonders why Allen chose to hide its existence. However, his thoughts soon wander to Link, who had faked his death in order to pursue Allen, as well as Lvellie, who he suspects may be pulling the strings. Nevertheless, his train of thought is soon interrupted by General Tiedoll, who wishes for Johnny to speak with him so he does not fall asleep.

Johnny takes this opportunity to ask the General why he chose to help them. Tiedoll explains that while he initially intended to turn them in, since Lenalee and Marie are in on it, and Kanda was insistent that he would help Allen no matter what, he chose to hear his apprentice out. Nevertheless, he also offers another reason—he is also interested in the human-shaped Innocence and says they must get it before the Noah do. But helping them in exchange for this information is strictly for the record. Despite Tiedoll's answer, Johnny still seems to be unsure about whether or not they can trust him, though he is moved to tears when Tiedoll expresses that he is grateful to Allen for taking a stand for Kanda and Alma. However, the General tells him this will be the only time he will help them.

Meanwhile, inside the carriage, Allen is concerned—if he tells everyone about Apocryphos, the Exorcists would start to doubt their Innocence and as a result of that, they could potentially become Fallen Ones. Furthermore, he regrets having brought Timcanpy along with him when he left the Order, but he was terrified of being alone. He thinks back to the death of Mana's dog Allen, and to Timcanpy, and as these memories flow he begins to summon the Ark. He apologises to Kanda and assures him he will retrieve the human-shaped Innocence himself. Johnny is only alerted to something going on inside the carriage when he hears Kanda yelling, but when he pulls back the curtains he finds both Allen and Kanda are gone.

Places

 * City

Chapter Notes

 * The finders who meet Krory and Chaozii were the ones who found Kanda after his fight with Apocryphos.
 * It's been 5 hours since the arrival of the Order forces in the morning.
 * Talismans, when used conjointly, are able to seal a whole city.
 * Tiedoll and the finders were sent after Kanda, a totally different mission from Allen's capture.
 * Chaozii mentions that he would have liked to see Kanda. This is because Kanda had disappeared for 3 months after the North American Branch Attack.
 * Allen and Johnny could leave the city in Tiedoll's carriage thanks to Kanda acting as if he was locked inside. This means that when Kanda opened the curtains they were still in the city.
 * Chaozii seems to be suspicious of Krory's feelings regarding Allen.
 * Tiedoll advises Johnny to enjoy the beauty of the world, which goes hand in hand with his Innocence activation phrase: "witness the beauty of this world: Maker of Eden".
 * Allen is afraid that other exorcists might doubt Innocence after learning about Apocryphos and eventually become fallen ones. As a matter of fact, Kanda may be showing the first signs of falling, however that was even before meeting Apocryphos.
 * This is the first time Mana's face is shown entirely. He is indeed eerily similar to the Earl of Millennium.
 * Allen recalls Mana saying "if I grieve, the Earl will come for me". This hints that besides his brokers information network, the Earl has some grief sensing ability. This would explain how he is able to appear so quickly before those who are bereaved.
 * Therefore, Allen decides that he cannnot even mourn Timcanpy, otherwise the Earl will be warned.
 * Those lines directly come from D.Gray-man: Reverse Lost Fragment of Snow

Translation Notes

 * In the title of the chapter (掩蔽, enpei ) could be literally translated as "occultation" that is the phenomenon when an object (in particular in astronomy) is hidden by another object (a good example is the eclipses). (腹心 , fukushin ) is the idea of a trusted friend.
 * The flashback showing Allen behind Krory reads " This is the next step. I must not stop. I have to get moving. They’re desperate enough to bet their lives on this, after all, but I’m just as desperate to escape. To be frank, the bullets from Master’s Judgement  were much more difficult to evade than the debt collectors. I really don’t want to go through that again. It was practice, though, and after that, running from the debt collectors has been easy as falling off a log."
 * Allen does end the I can’t tell you anything after all sentence with the “ya” sentence-final particle, which is mostly specific to southern Kansai dialects like Osaka-ben these days, but used to be more common across the country around the time this manga takes place. Old men using it is a bit of a trope in fiction, to show how old they are, lol. He also drawls his “nannimo” (extra n) a bit, which is – again – a bit odd. It comes off kind of unusually casual, but then, the rest of the scene is totally in character.