#dgm255

And Lavi knows his torture has to do with the Past Apprentice, with a secret even Bookman Senior is hiding something from him, that it's something to do with Nea and his relationship to Allen.

But it also depends on how much Lavi has learnt about what's happening in the outside world: the timing of the kidnapping meaning he may not know the details about Allen being taken over by Nea more and more, or the details about Allen running away from the Order. This lack of knowledge can impact how receptive Lavi would be to the truth coming to light.

But, I expect, on some level, for Lavi to be fucked up mentally speaking and either reinforcing his identity as the New Bookman, or being even more conflicted on Allen's involvement in their clan to start with, all mixed with what would be a reasonable trauma to have in his situation.

(aside note: for decades i've been imagining, not as something i would like to see but something i always thought as "would that be fucked up or what" of finding Lavi post torture with white hair to denote his trauma. Now that i'm looking at the latest chapter, I'm looking back at this with another eye. I'm not saying it will happen, but if it does.... you'd have heard of it here first.)

AND we have to consider how much this knowledge about Past!Lavi will impact how Allen sees Current!Lavi: will he be able to see them as two separate individuals or will he mix them up together in his guilt of being the downfall of Two Bookman Apprentices?

But then again WHY did Past!Lavi appear to Current!Lavi if they don't have a sort of connection to start with? and therefore, will that mix up be a misunderstanding or actually a deeper understanding of who they are to each other?

I think Allen would be the type to get caught up in his guilt, especially since by all account he still doesn't know what happened to Lavi. Lavi and Bookman were marked as having disappeared and/or dead for months, it's likely Allen has barely had the time to think about them as a coping mechanism like he was shown avoiding with Link when he thought he was dead as well, bc let's not forget, "if i mourn, the Earl will catch me". The idea that the Bookmen are being tortured because of their relation to Allen was already a tension, but now knowing Bookman lost his previous apprentice specifically because P!Lavi wanted to protect Allen, this will bring a whole other tension and guilt between those two parties.

And this is a tension that exists even without C!Lavi and P!Lavi being connected.

In fact i could imagine that Allen himself will not think there is a direct connection between P!Lavi and C!Lavi at first, because P!Lavi lives on inside of him, and he has no reason to believe P!Lavi's soul would have interreacted with C!Lavi. HOWEVER we know from chap 153.5 that C!Lavi DOES have vision of P!Lavi, in a scene that seemed to imply P!Lavi is making sure to protect C!Lavi for reason and because "they'll meet again one day", cutting to Lavi meeting Allen and being reminded of this apparition. TO ME i would theorize that a part of P!Lavi soul is at least trying to connect C!Lavi with Allen, in the hope he can protect the two of them in the future and/or to have C!Lavi carry on where P!Lavi can't be. And that would be at the minimum. On the other swing, I think P!Lavi lives on with C!Lavi as well.

What if. Walk with me on this one, what if. I've mentioned for years that i think it's uncanny that Allen and Lavi are both people with a secret in their eyes that links them to the secrets of their family. Allen's left eye linked him directly to Mana, to his connection to his Noah's side, and Lavi's was always something that "made it possible for him to be a Bookman.". But, especially now after chapter 255 seeing Past!Lavi reach out and gives a part of his soul, of his blessing, onto Allen when Mana attacked him, and the way it weirdly doesn't show the eye until Allen realizes the extend of Past!Lavi's protection, there's an ominous connection of Past!Lavi on Allen's eye. BUT POINT IS if the Eye of the Bookman is something that is born in a generation only if the previous Owner Of The Eye dies, could Past!Lavi be connected to Current!Lavi because of the power of the eye being passed over? In which case this would also connect together the fact Allen's and Lavi's "weird eye" was always a connected foil, both of their eyes connecting them to a loved one watching over them, and even more so, to Past!Lavi's blessing and protection on both of them.

So my point is, as a way to carry on the similitudes between Allen and Lavi, i could totally imagine a part of Past!Lavi passing down into the eye Lavi was born with for instance, if a part of him wasn't downright reincarnated with Lavi at this point as well.

The relationship and dynamic between Past!Lavi and Current!Lavi will change a lot to how this relationship will work out exactly.

I feel like a Lavi who has very little knowledge about Past!Lavi, very little connection to him, could be more delicate to welcome Allen back into his life about the torture. but a Lavi who would have a true connection to Past!Lavi, would have more reasons to want to carry on what his predecessor started.

FOR NOW we can expect Lavi to not know anything because if he learns anything, it means the Noah know about it as well and that would be really tricky. I think Allen is probably in a situation where, if he doesn't mix the two Lavi together in his mind, he still would hold himself responsible for what happened to the Bookmen, and to both Past!Lavi and Current!Lavi on different fronts.

Allen will try to go back to Lavi and find him, he needs the answers from the Campbell Mansion yes, but i can't imagine him learning about all of this connection with the Bookmen and not do something about it.

Forever ago, Hoshino posted a page on Instagram that she then quickly deleted showing Allen and Lavi, seemingly of Allen going to find Lavi again. Their reunion will be a big plot point and have been teased for years for sure at least.

I'll also remind that in the chapters where the Noah are hunting Allen down, Fiddler draws some sketches of Lavi with his heart broken into it. I think it implies Lavi is in a very bad situation emotionally, mentally and psychologically speaking. We also of course all remember the whole imagery of "A Bookman has no need for a Heart" that has been following Lavi specifically over his overprotectiveness over Allen and how he holds on to him.

This, to me, indicate that on Lavi's side, he might be in such a bad place after all the torture that it would strengthen his resolve to put distance to become the perfect Bookman Heir -- which would therefore build up to something the more Lavi learns about the Past Apprentice.

I think i remember an interview though (or did i hallucinate it?) where Hoshino teased that Lavi might not be in a position to be a Bookman anymore (or was it just theories because of Lucia's introduction? That we now know was about Past!Lavi not Current!Lavi?). If so this will also challenge Lavi's dynamic with Allen.

If anything i think there will be conflict over the state we will find Lavi in post-Torture, probably by putting into question his place as the Bookman Heir (Bookman Senior being on the verge of death for example would create a direct succession conflict that Lavi will have to figure out his place into. For years when i believed Past!Apprentice=Past!Allen, i believed it possible to have a Bookman centric arc with a succession crisis that involves Lavi and Allen. Perhaps something similar can be played on with those reveals.) but it's learning about Past!Lavi that will put things into perspective to him and open up again to Allen from a different angle.

As for Allen it really depeeeeends so much on how he manages to separate the Lavi AND on how much they are actually separate.

Also like I discussed with Noro (who so nicely has done the translation for chapter 254 and 255 after i mopped about them), this also gives us another potential person to be calling "Dear Gray Man", as we know, the actual title of the manga. If it refers to Past!Lavi for example, i think Lavi's connection to this arc would be to strong not to mention.

SO YEAH.

All over the place because i have so many thoughts but in short i Believe that:

-When we'll find Lavi again he'll be standoffish, probably more reserved and traumatized by the tortures he's been through -Allen will feel guilty for what he has done to the Bookmen as a whole and will try to make amends for both Past!Lavi and Current!Lavi -That C!Lavi and P!Lavi are also connected reincarnation-ically speaking, not just out of appartitions -That whatever connection Lavi will have to Past!Lavi will indicate how strongly the dynamic with Allen will change -Most importantly I can see that even once they have figured shit out about their past lives what will happen is that they'll easily fall back into their regular dynamic that they have been having since the ark's arc, and that it will shock them how little is actually changing because they already had accepted each other into their lives before any past lives reveal already: that Lavi was already overprotective and that Allen was already letting his guard down around Lavi. That the most shocking in all of this is how natural the reveal is to them in the end.

... that last point is my ultimate copium LMAO

BUT YEAH. THAT4S MY THOUGHTS ON ALL OF THIS. I THINK.