#komui

Inkheart Archives [Beta]

Chapters: planning to have 40-50 chapters (may still change though hehe), currently have 25 chapters in drafts

Language: English

Relationships: Lavi / Mischa Heaven (OC)

Characters: Lavi, Mischa Heaven (OC), Bookman, Cross Marian, Lenalee Lee, Komui Lee, Falchion (OC), Kanda Yuu, Reever Wenham, Johnny Gill, Tup, Hevlaska, plus other characters and OCs

Genre: Same as DGM, with angst, slow burn, mystery, tragedy and more

Updates: Once a week, usually on weekends

Read it here: AO3

Summary:

Mischa Heaven wanders the world rewriting lost truths in ink and silence. But when her path crosses with Lavi—the boy who was never meant to remember her—memories stir, curses awaken, and blood-stained past begins to burn through the present.

This is a story written across many nights, a tale that takes time to breathe, and even longer to forget.

The beginning of a lorng journey.

I'm so glad somebody else is thinking about this, because like, this question is consuming me. I've given it so much thought its crazy.

Here's my thoughts:

I also think its entirely possible they aren't biologically related at all! Or at least, not in the way Lenalee thinks they are. I even tossed around the idea that Komui is actually her biological father lmao.

And while it is possible Komui was, like, put up to be her big brother by the Order, I don't think that can be it, based on the narrative.

Here's the scene that makes me think this:

The Black Order ghost girl lays it out that she was an experimental subject of the BO, and that she relates to Lenalee. At the time, it seemed like that was because Lenalee was also kept imprisoned in the Order, but if her birth records really are tampered with, it's likely Lenalee was also an experiment.

But the ghost girl then says:

The emotional core of Lenalee's character is this right here: she couldn't survive alone, so her brother willingly followed her to into Hell and made that Hell into a home for them. It is this sacrifice that is at the center of Lenalee: the reason she can't abandon the Order and chase after Allen like Johnny and Kanda can. Komui gave up his freedom and entire life to make the Order a bearable place for her to live, but in doing so, trapped them both there.

With her current strength and speed, leaving the Black Order would be easy for Lenalee. Unlike when she was a child, escape is no longer impossible. But she doesn't want to escape anymore: she's made the people of the Black Order into her family and community. There's nothing the outside world can offer her that Komui hasn't helped her find within the Order.

For all that to be revealed to just be a lie fabricated to manipulate Lenalee into dedicating herself to the Order would be, I think, too diametrically opposed to DGM's themes. It's not impossible, but I do think it goes against DGM's "heart". Cruelty of that kind is very much present in DGM's narrative, but it;s often suggested only to be revealed to be significantly less cruel than it seemed.

Take the "Did Mana love Allen" question. The question of whether Mana was just using Allen to get his brother back is raised, considered, and even partially supported. It is an exceedingly cruel concept.

But then we're shown the reality of what happened, and the truth is nowhere near as cruel and heartless as that. Mana did care about Red, and he certainly wasn't purposely seeking out Nea's host.

Same with Cross. He loves Allen. Allen was never just the "host" to him.

Plot twists in DGM generally don't betray the emotional core of the story: love. That's usually what makes them so effectively tragic. It's that everything in DGM happens out of love that makes everything so heartbreaking. That's why I don't think it's possible for Komui to be knowingly lying to Lenalee about their connection: it makes their choices less tragic. It would mean Lenalee got tricked into staying at the Order, which sucks and is cruel, but nowhere near as emotionally devastating as her brother's sacrifice to save her also trapping her in her fate as an exorcist. I think Komui's sacrifice being fake is way less interesting and tragic and emotionally-resonant than what is currently told to us by the narrative. The best way to put it into words is: I think that it would carve the heart out of the story.

So I think Komui's sacrifice must be real, which is why my tentative theory is that the hypothetical Lee parents were Black Order scientists. Maybe Komui was their first born son, left alone and unsupervised like Jan as they got entrenched in the Holy War. Asian Branch experimental nonsense ensues, like maybe they decided to see if they could, like, "create" apostles the old fashion way by exposing fetuses to Innocence in the womb or something. But they end up thinking of the experimental baby as their own daughter and realize they can't let her end up an exorcist after all, so they steal her and escape. Or maybe something related to Reny's currently unknown connection to Apocryphos happened, something that leads to Lenalee's possible Heart status. Regardless of the details, they deliver that baby to Komui outside, but eventually, shit happens and the Order finds and reclaims Lenalee, leaving Komui with a decision to make: does he accept that there's no way to help the child his parents wanted to save, or does he willingly subject himself to the life his parent's certainly never wanted for either of them?

This is all wild, unsupported conjecture, but it's the way I can see the Lenalee's suspicious birth records plot twist coming into fruition without betraying the heart of her story and character arc so far. I really do think Komui's sacrifice being fake would hurt the story.

But maybe that's just because I love Komui and his history and don't want it to be fake.

Original art by Hoshino Katsura (@hoshino1000) on Instagram

hoshino1000 Number one drink

hoshino1000 Hot Calpis delicious ☆

hoshino1000 White tea delicious ☆

hoshino1000 Caffe mocha delicious ⭐️

He is in fact a very hardworking person and a kind chief. That doesn’t mean he will pass the opportunity to run away from overloads of work

Sometimes he’s just to tired though