THE REAL [CuNDoHoI]

Let's start with this one:

Here we have the flashback in chapter 233 where Cross was watching Red!Allen and how Red!Allen couldn’t be past!Allen because “Allen” was supposed to be a grown man by then (you guys still with me?). This is where the translation confuses me: “Allen” should be in his thirties at the time Cross was talking, or in his thirties like 35 years ago? (I don't have access to the raw to see it for myself and I’m also not good at Japanese anyway, so if someone could help me verify this that would be great!) Because we have already seen him talking to Nea in his adult body in chapter 215:

If the latter was the case, shouldn't he be in his sixties now at least?

The '35 years' bit itself doesn’t line up either. We have this in the present time (chapter 215):

Again with the flashback (chapter 233):

Like hello??? Why is it still "35 years ago" even in the flashback? Hoshino-sensei, please be consistent with the timeline and help us here, your story is confusing enough lol.

Theories time! (from chapter 235)

I’m pretty sure many people have pointed out that the kid being held was past!Allen, and the person holding him was... whoever the frig that was lol. However, WHAT IF the “long, long ago” part didn’t refer to 35 years ago, but to another timeline/world? Like “Allen” doesn’t have immortality ability, but he has the ability to jump between timelines/worlds like the Noahs? So that’s what his “spiral of life” talk was about! (check out chapter 221) Since he’s just a human, the downside is that every time he jumps his memory would be wiped but somehow subconsciously still remembers??? (I blame a certain game series that starts with ‘Z’ for this, can’t even write the name properly because that’s a massive spoiler right there lol.) Another possibility is that he did retain his memory between jumps before but this time (that ended up being Red!Allen) Apocryphos stepped in and fucked everyone up. Damn if we are really going down that route it would explain a lot the inconsistencies I mentioned above lmao.

I bet this is the part where past!Allen just “jumped”, for some reason Nea happened to be there thinking “hmmm this guy could be useful” and decided to approach him. Okay so maaaaaybe they were not that close after all lol.