So we all know this image, yes?
Besides the other thousand similarities between Nea and Allen that I could honestly go on for days about, you notice they’re dressed exceedingly similarly. I think it’s no coincidence that even their clothes are near identical. Because sure, Hoshino intentionally drew this panel to highlight how similar they look, but from the story’s perspective, conscious choices from both characters went into how each of them is dressed.
Now, flashback to a couple chapters ago just after Kanda and Johnny stumbled across Allen busking as a clown and the akuma began to attack and Allen’s skin changed to the trademark Noah grey:
Other than hallucinating just now (more on this later), he’s acting himself or as himself as he can be when he’s on the run from the one place he’s been able to call home in a hot minute. Kanda slaps him out of it, they yell at each other for a minute about freedom and Alma and then Allen just passes out. His skin remains grey. He sleeps overnight and wakes up with his normal skin tone as Nea, or rather: Nea wakes up. From here, Nea goes about his day, learning what he can about Allen, evading Johnny and Kanda, and getting tangled up with the Millennium Earl.
Now, you may be wondering: so what?
So: Nea got himself dressed this day and what did he choose to wear?
A tied ascot/scarf and a (short) trenchcoat. Granted, Allen may not have too many clothes to choose from at this point in time, and it’s a manga so characters generally wear the same outfits anyway, BUT I think there’s some significance in this coat. Nea wears it. Tyki wears one. The earl wears one. And now Allen? Might i remind you that Allen has been wearing this coat since he first went on the run:
(from chapter 208, the first panel depicting current Allen after he left the Order with Tyki and Road that night)
You can just see the lapel of the jacket. Here, we don’t have much to go on, but I assume this is Allen and not Nea, because of his Innocence reacting. Considering the last panel we saw of present Allen he was wearing that white high collared tunic, I can only assume he went out a bought other clothes for himself. And he (presumably), of his on volition, acquired this tan jacket he’s been wearing.
My theory is that Nea is beginning to awaken more behind the scenes and is beginning to either discard some of Allen’s mind/memories or is simply overpowering him.
Because what did Allen wear before?
This hoodie thing from the Phantom Thief G arc seemed to be a favorite article of outerwear of his, especially knowing that the Order uniform coats are so insulating in and of themselves so he didn’t really need the extra jacket. But I digress.
But what if it’s not entirely Nea influencing his decisions? What if it’s Mana?
When Allen was under that bridge in chapter 212 with Johnny and Kanda, he hallucinates Mana:
Here we see Mana standing over Allen, though based on Mana’s appearance, this is, in fact, Nea’s memory, despite Allen projecting himself in Nea’s stead. And what do we see Mana wearing? The god damned tan coat.
Now I’m no expert on the Nea-Mana timeline (I’m not even certain if Hoshino knows what’s going on there), but their style choices were exceedingly similar as well. Perhaps this is not the first time Allen has seen this memory. Perhaps this is not the first Nea-memory Allen has seen. We certainly know it isn’t the last.
Allen recurrently finds himself in the wheat field in from of the Campbell Manor near which the previous Earl split. So Allen has been seeing Nea’s memories. But what has Nea seen of Allen’s memories?
We know he was somewhat present during the Ark Arc, else the conclusion wouldn’t have been possible, but more recently? Not much. When he woke up as himself, Nea asked Tim to show him a brief history of Allen Walker to get caught up, yet he remembers the oath Allen made to himself and to the Order just after the Alma Arc:
and he laments having lost his friend
And I’ve seen some theories floating around, based in the exact coloring of Allen’s eyes during (I believe) the Krory Arc, that Nea has been awakening for quite some time before the audience or really anyone other than Cross knew anything. (I’ve completely gotten away from the trenchcoat thing but now I’m running)
Back in the Phantom Thief G Arc, when Nea spoke to the Earl through the akuma, Allen was conscious of the event and able to regain control fairly quickly, albeit with the help of Mugen impaling the stone about 3 inches from his head.
Now, Nea just had an almost full day bender with hardly any confirmed Allen. Even when he wakes up, Allen doesn’t seem to remember what happened while Nea was in control. And if we factor in smaller choices (like the coat), Nea has had some influence over him for quite some time. Maybe one day I’ll have time to go back and re-read in depth to pick out these specific instances, but that’s for another post.
So how long does he have left? If Nea keeps up at this rate, he will have overwhelmed Allen in, what, maybe 25 chapters? Maybe. Allen is running out of time.