Lenalee Lee

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

Background
Komui's younger sister, and the assistant Head Officer, Lenalee Lee is a 16-year-old Exorcist from China. Her parents were killed by an Akuma when she was very young. She feels guilty for imprisoning Komui at the Headquarters (in that he threw everything away for her sake). She explains to Allen that her perception of the "world" consists of her friends and family; whenever one of her friends dies, it seems to her as if a part of her world has been destroyed. She has a strong sense of friendship, and constantly worries about her friends and gets mad at them if they overextend themselves such as when Allen nearly sacrifices himself to save an Akuma's soul during their first encounter with Road Kamelot. She was hesitant to forgive him after this incident and forced him to publicly apologize. Although she cherishes all of her friends dearly, she appears to care deeply about Allen, in particular. This has caused some readers to believe that she may have a crush on Allen.

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 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 harboured 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.

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, 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.

Story
Lenalee is introduced into the series when the gatekeeper of the Black Order mistakenly identifies Allen as an Akuma stopping Kanda from killing Allen. She is the one that shows Allen around the Black Order's HQ. After Allen and Kanda return from the mission she is rendered unconscious by Komui's support robot, Komurin 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.

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 thank to 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. After the battle, when she and Allen finally recovered, they set off to find General Cross. She is moody and Allen realizes she hasn't really spoken to him since slapping him. He brings it up to her and she admits she hates that Allen feels he has to sacrifice himself. She then tearfully accepts his public apology at the train station. Allen and Lavi (who were separated from the group) rejoin the group with Arystar Krory, and Lenalee welcomes her new comrade. As the group continues to look for Cross, they find Suman Dark in his Togaochi (Fallen One) form, which brings back painful memories for Lenalee. She remembers as a child seeing a Fallen One resulting from the experiments performed where Innocence was forced upon non-hosts. Allen conforts her and together they try to save Suman. Allen is absorbed into Suman when he tries to rescue a little girl trapped in his body. She is 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 come upon the spot where he was left to die by Tyki, but he is no longer there and the images recorded by Timcanpy leave her to fear the worst. She learns that Allen exceded his limits to rescue Suman Dark and was then attacked by Tyki Mikk and apparently had his Innocence destroyed. She is then told that Allen is gone, and believes him dead, and she leaves on a ship for Edo in a deep depression. After bonding with Anita, who is helping the Exorcists reach Edo, and hearing her unshakable faith that Cross is still alive Lenalee believes Allen may still be alive. When the ship is attacked by a Level 3 Akuma, Lenalee leaves the ship to fight it alone.

During the battle against the Level 3 Akuma on the sea, Lenalee forced her Dark Boots to its maximum invocation to defeat the Akuma, using her ultimate technique, Shittsui no Tougi: Tetsukase (Falling Footsteps: Iron Shackles), and nearly losing her life. During this attack, Lenalee's long hair is burned off as a result of extremely high levels of air friction, leaving it boyishly short. But recently, her hair appears to have grown a little longer. Because of the final request of Anita, who helped the Exorcists reach Edo at the cost of her and her crew's life, it is believed that Lenalee will let her hair grow out to its original length again.

When Lavi heads 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 has been 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.

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 Innocnece 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 repeled the Earl with his incredible new Crown Clown Anti-Akuma Weapon just in time to rescue Lenalee and force the enemies to retreat.

Her emotional reunion with Allen was short-lived however as she was kidnapped by Lero and pulled into Noah's Ark. The Earl's plan was 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 backfired however, as Allen, Kanda, Krory, Lavi, and Chaoji followed Lenalee into the Ark where they successfully defeated the Noah and captured the old Ark and the Akuma Egg.

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. 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.

During the headquarters 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. Shortly after the events surrounding the "Black Order's Destruction" she was present at the New Headquarters, and 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. Apparently, Lenalee still cares for Allen, and she does not feel uncomfortable being around him because she went to check on him after completing her mission, and she was worried about his fever. However, she seems to have noticed that when Allen originally woke up, he seemed like a different person, so she is concerned about his welfare. Due to the constant investigation of Howard Link, it is increasingly difficult for Allen and Lenalee to get a moment alone so it's unlikely that the pair have spoken about the situation with the 14th Noah.

As of Chapter 186, Lenalee, Allen, and Kanda have been assigned a new mission to Istanbul.

Anti-Akuma weapon
Lenalee's Innocence is a pair of boots known as the "Dark Boots" (黒い靴). When invoked, they greatly increase Lenalee's speed and strength, particularly in her legs. However, according to Lenalee, the Dark Boots are always heavy and painful to wear. Before the Dark Boots are invoked, they resemble a pair of thigh-high boots; when invoked, the top part of her boots seem to unwrap themselves; the boots extend to her knees, and a glowing green strip manifests on her skin, from the toes to the middle of the thigh. She has displayed several techniques so far:


 * 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.


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


 * Shittsui no Tougi: Tetsukase (失墜の踏技 「鉄枷」, lit. Falling Footwork: "Iron Shackles"): Upon maximum invocation, Lenalee's power condenses unto 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.

Due to her battle with the level 3 Akuma, Eshii, she lost her Dark Boots after pushing them to their limits. In a strange twist of fate, Lenalee's legs lost much of their mobility and even the time reversing effects of Miranda's Time Record Innocence couldn't do anything about it.

Later, it was implied that Lenalee's Innocence was somehow evolving from an equipment-type into a parasitic-type (a previously unheard-of event), and her synch-rate had dropped to 10% (or less). Her innocence was extracted by Hevlaska, who warned Lenalee that she could die if she attempted to activate her Innocence again at such a low synch-rate. Upon its removal, she regained full use of her legs, and even remarked that her legs felt light without the Dark Boots attached to them. However, Lenalee suggested that she should forcefully activate her Innocence so that she can continue fighting with her comrades, something that Rouvelier had decided to do despite Lenalee's weakened condition and the other risks involved. She receives the Innocence from Hevlaska's body, which liquifies. She drinks it, causing blood to spurt out of her legs, which condensed into a red crystal and formed her new Dark Boots.

Lenalee's new boots take the appearance of high heels, and are able to react to Lenalee's emotions, making them easier to handle. The boots themselves are quite powerful, able to stand up to a level 4 Akuma, considering Lenalee hadn't even used them for a rather extended period of time. When the boots are not in battle or use, they become a pair of red rings around the cross-shaped scars on Lenalee's legs. This makes the Innocence's type something of an enigma; while they bear a striking resemblance to an equipment-type, they have many of the characteristics of a parasitic-type, mainly their biological appearance, make-up and behavior.

However, in recent chapters, it has been revealed that her innocence is in fact, not parasitic type. Parasitic types change the cellular makeup of the exorcist's body. For example, Allen's arm is no longer made up of human cells. Lenalee's innocence is supposedly a new evolution of an equipment type. Komui has dubbed this new evolution "Crystal type". It is different from an equipment type because it doesn't rely upon a weapon manufactured by the Order. It is actually made of the exorcist's blood, thus making it far more powerful than a normal equipment type. It is unknown whether or not it is more powerful than a parasitic type, or if it'll shorten one's lifespan.