Broken Angel ( こわれた天使 / こわれたてんし / kowareta tenshi ) is the eighty-fourth chapter of the Elfen Lied manga series.
Plot[]
As the ladies attend to a bleeding Kouta, he reaches up, grasps Yuka's hand, and says that he has regained his lost memories, including how his family died, and who killed them, saying he must avenge them while glaring at Lucy, who shows signs of heartbreak. Kouta falls unconscious, and Lucy goes outside to protect their home, also saying that she will help summon an ambulance for Kouta.
Outside, Nousou hides with Alicia and Barbara, scared out of his mind, and also mourning the loss of Cynthia, while calculating relative vector range between Lucy and the Mariko clones. As Lucy emerges, Nousou realizes that capturing Lucy unharmed is out of the question, and commands the clones to disable Lucy's nervous system as they had with Nana, also relying on air support from attack helicopters they have in the area. Lucy's new power levels prove beyond his calculations as she takes down one copter in flight, and sends the other hurtling towards Nousou.
In the distance, a shadowed figure approaches Maple House even as the battle rages. To Nousou's surprise, Alicia and Barbara keep him, and themselves alive by using their vectors to lift the fallen copter off of them, but only just enough to hold it from crushing them. Nousou finds he is still pinned beneath the helicopter, his legs unable to get loose, only to spot Lucy holding a sub-machine gun taken from a fallen soldier, which she uses to strafe Alicia's torso.
To the shock of all, the pain does not cause Alicia or Barbara to relent, causing Nousou to wonder if the clones' loyalty to him goes beyond their control mechanisms. Lucy continues to strafe them, mainly hitting Alicia but sometimes Barbara as well, staying well outside their vector range, till she picks up a piece of debris, and hurls it at Alicia, severing one of her arms. When this still does not make either girl budge, Lucy mocks their apparent love for Nousou, and he begins to feel guilty, realizing that saving him is making the pair vulnerable to Lucy's attacks, and also for the cruel way he has treated them in the past. Ready to sacrifice himself, he flatly and unequivocally orders them to drop the copter and kill Lucy, but again they will not relent.
Lucy presses her advantage and uses another piece of debris to cut one of Alicia's legs off, and then finally beheads her using the stone capper to a porch lantern. Despite his fervent pleas, Nousou cannot get Barbara to release the copter, but Lucy seizes it and drops it on them as Barbara rushes to be by Nousou's side as the end comes.
Lucy further remarks on how easy it was to defeat them, but her triumph is short-lived, though, as the Agent emerges from hiding holding the upper torso of Cynthia and shoots one of her horns off, sending her into agony. The Agent explains that the clones' persistence comes from having been created to keep utilizing their vectors right until they die. As the Agent prepares to shoot her other horn off, a disheveled and apparently deranged Kurama walks up, seeing Cynthia as the late Mariko.
Trivia[]
- When Kouta is reaching up to hold Lucy's right hand, it at first appears to be Yuka's hand due to the color of her sleeve, but since Yuka's right hand is holding Kouta's head, it is just an inconsistency in coloring. In the frame where Kouta talks about avenging his murdered family members, however, he is suddenly holding Lucy's left hand instead of her right. In the next frame, he falls unconscious, and she's still holding up her right hand, meaning this is just a goof on Okamoto's part.
- Arakawa's look on this chapter's cover is that of a person somber and burdened, in her case by the guilt of what she has done to achieve her goals, including betraying the location of Maple House to her employer.
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