#* // ♦︎ grey ( STARTERS. )

[starbudspresents]

Re.Gray 023 - Demon

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Summary: Road makes a half-assed attempt to correct Allen's misconceptions, casually dropping a serious bombshell or two.

♦ 125

Earl, flashback: We are the Maker of the Akuma, the Millennium Earl. Earl, flashback: We shall exorcise your corrupted "God", and — with our Akuma at our side — direct this world unto its demise.

Road, flashback: You're the chosen people of a false God. Road, flashback: We were chosen by God, too; the true Apostles.

Allen: Noah... clan...?

Road: Weapons are for people to kill other people with, aren't they?

23rd Night - Demon1

♦ 126

23rd Night - Demon

Allen: You're human...!?

♦ 127

Lero: Shhhhh!!! Lero: Shhh, Laty Roat!! You mustn't tell outsiders about our business, lero!!

Road: Huh? Why not?

Lero: You mustn't!! For starters, you making contact with these people wasn't in the Scenario, was it, lero!! Lero: That's even worse than having stolen Lero away! Keep this up and the Earl will spank you, lero! sfx: gyagyagyagyagya [frantic wailing]

Road: As if he'd ever do that to me. Road: I'm just spicing this story up a bit to make it more entertaining, that's all. Road: Minor crap like this won't derail his Scenario.

♦ 128

sfx: girih [Allen flexes his pin arm, striving to pull free] sfx: DON [he succeeds] sfx: bushuuuu [his puncture wounds hiss and steam]

♦ 129

sfx: garah... [he tore out a chunk of wall doing that, and there's nothing but swirling grey void behind it]

Road: What are you mad about? Road: Can't believe I'm really human?

♦ 130

sfx: ...n dokun dokun [...ump, ba-bump, ba-bump; this close, he can feel her heart beating]

Road: Warm, right? Road: Feels like touching another human being, right?

Allen: ...... sfx: gigi [his Innocence hand comes up threateningly behind her]

♦ 131

Allen: If you're human like me, how could you.... sfx: buaaaaa [the hand begins its lethal descent] Allen: Ugh.... sfx: girih [grimacing]

Road: "Like you"? Road: You've got it all wrong. sfx: gah [she seizes his hand]

♦ 132

sfx: BAN [Road hits herself hard with his hand]

Allen: Wh—!? Allen: Why would you....

sfx: gokikikiki... [she sags toward the floor, face completely fried] sfx: gan [with a lunge, she seizes his collar and pulls herself close]

♦ 133

Road: We've inherited the genes of the Noah, the Apostles of earliest humanity. We're superhuman.2 Road: We're not "like" you screwups. sfx: DO [she abruptly stabs him in the cursed eye with another spike]

♦ 134

Allen: GUAAHHHHH

sfx: puh [Road spits out the blood she's just licked off the spike] Road: Ahaha! Road: Kyahahaha! Road: Kyahahaha!

Allen: ...!!!

sfx: gatata gatagata [Miranda trembling violently against the clock] Miranda: Eeeek....

♦ 135

Road: I don't think anything of killing screwed-up humans. Road: This whole world is super-duper screwed up, and I fuckin' hate it. ♫ Road: You people can all drop dead for all I care. Road: Even God Himself wants this world dead. Road: That's why He's blessed us with our weapons, the Akuma.

Allen: That isn't God.... Allen: It's the Devil!!3

♦ 136

Road: Eh, whatever, same difference.

sfx: bah [Allen lunges at her] sfx: bah [the Akuma leap to shield her]

Allen: !

♦ 137

Road: You know you can't kill me, right?

sfx: DON [Sickle's attacks blast through the air at Allen]

Miranda: Allen!

Road: Three Akuma, in the shape you're in? Brutal. sfx: chira [she glances at Miranda]

Miranda: ...! sfx: biku [flinch]

♦ 138

Miranda: N-No. sfx: buruburu [shaking with fear] Miranda: Someone help.

Road: Probably time to "let you go", huh. sfx: suh [an array of pointy-ended candles gather around her raised hand]

sfx: dodododododo [the candles plummet, but Allen is somehow there in time to shield her]

♦ 139

Miranda: !! sfx: doh [she realizes who's saved her] Miranda: Allen....

sfx: bushu [he pulls the stake out of her hand with a gush of blood]

Miranda: Eeeeeek~ sfx: dadadah [she scrambles across the floor on her hands and knees, away] sfx: ban [she flattens herself against the far wall] sfx: haa haa [panting] Miranda: ! Miranda: Allen...!? Miranda: Allen...? Miranda: P-Please don't die.... sfx: buruburu [shaking] Miranda: D-Don't die, Allen....

♦ 140

Allen: I Allen: I'm all right....

sfx: buru buru [shake shake; a moment later she clenches her fist, and that makes no sound at all]

sfx: zah [the group of Akuma twig to something] Akuma: !?

Akuma: What is it, sow?

♦ 141

Akuma: What do you think you're doing~?

sfx: don [Miranda has come back to Allen and wrapped her arms protectively around his shoulders] Miranda: Ha... haha.... Miranda: What am I doing...? sfx: [her teeth chattering in terror] Miranda: But I... I just....

Pangu: What can a human even do~~!?

sfx: kah [the arms of the grandfather clock click to 9:15] sfx: bou [light suddenly surrounds her and the clock, expanding] Miranda: I just....

♦ 142

Road: Road Kamelot!

Side: NOAH

Lero: Lero! Bubble 2 side: You mustn't talk to outsiders about our business, lero~

Road: The details of my file are still top-secret~

The question I've gotten most often with regards to Road is "Boy or girl?"

Girl. She's a girl. Her likes are "candy" and "the Earl". Dislikes "human beings". Hobbies include "bullying Akuma" and "playing pranks" (especially on the Earl). She absconded with Lero while the Earl was having his afternoon nap.

♦♥♦

FOOTNOTES

悪魔 akuma, "demon". I went over the different spellings of Akuma/AKUMA/demon in the notes for Night 001, this is just a refresher. [ ♠ ]

Oof, really felt the absence of natural plurals in the Japanese language here. It's not at all clear whether she's saying "Noah, the Apostle", or "the Noah clan, Apostles". Based on what we learn later, I'm going with the plural here, but I really wish it were possible to maintain that ambiguity for safety's sake.

Either way, though, this line — 最古人類の使徒 saiko-jinrui no shito, "the Apostle(s) of earliest/oldest(/pre-Flood) humanity" — has some wild implications. It... really seems to be insinuating that the Noah clan were the original Exorcists? The ones who engraved the Cube? The ones who fought against the Earl (and won), then died out anyway for unclear reasons (but apparently still passed their genes on to a weaker, inferior humanity 2.0)? This raises a million more questions I can't answer, but the implication is... there. Make of it what you will; I'll keep translating, and see if any later exposition clarifies it.

Should also mention that へぼ hebo, the adjective I'm translating as "screwed-up", describes people and things that are clumsy, ill-made, amateurish, generally crap at being whatever they're supposed to be. She uses it for both humanity 2.0 and the world they live in, as if they're both only shoddy facsimiles of what came before them. [ ♠ ]

In those aforementioned notes on 悪魔 akuma, I forgot to mention the fourth possible reading: the Devil, Satan, the capital-d Demon (the same way 神 kami can mean "a god" or "capital-g God"). Allen says 本当の悪魔 hontou no akuma, "true/actual demon", but in this context it's clear he means the opposite of God: the literal Devil. [ ♠ ]

[oftaunt]

OPEN

TAKING A MUCH NEEDED BREAK FROM dealing with the crowds at her booth, ( telling people that all of their worst nightmares were going to come true within a matter of months got tiring after customer number 30 ) greyson decides to check out the games the carnival had to offer. and while they were more than likely all rigged one way or another, they still try to get into the spirit of things, stopping at the skee ball booth. “ i don’t think i’ve ever played before. ” greyson tells her current counterpart, looking over her shoulder at them. then again, she doesn’t remember ever going to a carnival. “ have you ?? ”

[redflcgs]

OPEN STARTER

❝Yer like           REALLY pretty. Ya know that?❞ A smile lights up the blondes face and her hands twitch at her sides. She ITCHES to reach out at touch the other person, but come on now Harley you KNOW people don’t like that. So she’d settle for the compliment, despite the fact that now MIGHT not be the most appropriate time to HAVE this conversation. She never knows for sure one way or the other.