Chapter 1

is the first chapter of the D.Gray-man manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino.

Long Summary
Police officers Moore Hesse and Charles investigate the town's church after receiving complaints from the citizens about visitors disappearing from the church, as well as it being cursed.

Charles fears that the church truly is cursed, however, Moore assures him it is probably just a rumour and the two make their way inside. Once inside, they encounter a cat, which Moore picks up. However at that moment she and Charles get swarmed by bats - Moore finds herself whisked away, leaving Charles behind.

Moore soon finds herself pinned to a chair and is surprised to see that it was actually a person who grabbed her. She reacts quickly, handcuffing him to the chair before interrogating him. However it is not long before she hears Clarles screaming. Moore rushes to his location but to her horror she finds him tied up and ends up witnessing his death. At this point there is a deadly gas spreading within the area, but Moore is saved by the boy she encountered earlier. She soon loses conciousness.

Some time later she wakes up at the police station where the boy is being interrogated about what happened at the church. His name is Allen Walker and he explains to them what his true purpose is and that the true culprit behind Charles' death was an Akuma.

Meanwhile, a strange man makes his way to what turns out to be Moore's home, to meet with her brother-in-Law, Marc. Afterwards, Moore arrives back at her home with Allen, who has to stay with her for the time being under the orders of her superior. Allen explains to her what Akuma are, but at that moment Marc approaches them and Allen can tell he is an Akuma thanks to his cursed left eye.

When Marc turns into his true Akuma form and begins its attack, both Moore and Allen get blasted all the way to the church. During the attack, Allen was able to capture one of the Akuma bullets and when Moore tried to touch it, he explains that it contains a deadly Akuma virus which can kill someone in the matter of a minute. As if to demonstrate, the cat Allen was holding succumbs to the virus like Charles did and crumbled to pieces. On top of this, Allen tells her that the Akuma is not really Marc - it had simply taken over his corpse. Suddenly, Moore's collegues arrive and attempt to take on the Akuma, however their guns are useless and they are promptly wiped out. Distressed, Moore begins to scream at it, but Allen tells her there is no talking to them - they are simply programmed to evolve through murder and the souls inside them are useless to stop it. Ultimately, Akuma are born from the darkness in a human's hearts.

Moore tells Allen the story about what happened to Marc and her sister Claire in the same church they are in; her sister was killed when a huge cross, which was suspended from the ceiling, dropped down and crushed her. It seems that, overwhelmed by grief, Marc tried to bring her back to life and as a result was turned into an Akuma.

Allen then defeats Marc and tells Moore the name of the creator, the Millenium Earl, and after offering words of comfort he leaves to make his way to the Black Order.

Trivia

 * With 57 pages This is the second longest chapter of D.Gray-Man.
 * D.Gray-man chapters are called "night" and this first one is called "opening" making it the "opening night" (first performance of a theatrical attraction) of the series.