Self-defense ( 攻防 / こうぼう / koubou / An Offensive and Defensive Battle ) is the fifth chapter of the Elfen Lied manga series.
Plot[]
Ordered and egged on by Bando, Satou apologizes to the unconscious Nyu as he prepares to shoot her. Bando, back turned while lighting a cigarette, hears the gunfire followed by the sounds of bones cracking and blood spattering. Satisfied, he prepares to call the kill in, only to turn around and see that Satou has a hole blown right through his midsection. Immediately after, something severs his left arm, and as he screams and Bando puzzles at the scene, he is savagely decapitated by an unseen force as the horned girl laughs maniacally. Bando is unaware, but his brutalizing Nyu has only woken Lucy up.
A spray of automatic machine gunfire doesn't faze the girl, who turns her mysterious power directly against him. Pushed back, he tries to regain his momentum and is shocked to see his helmet crushed by seemingly nothing. He remembers the warning he had received about the two-meter range of this unknown weapon, Bando retreats from Lucy and seeks cover behind a rock. She continues to assail him by throwing stones at him, and Bando makes an assumption about her power. He narrowly avoids being grabbed through the rock he's hiding behind. His chance at counter-attack evaporates almost as quickly as it was spotted.
Bando begins to enjoy himself, the thrill of battle overriding his reason quickly. He ciphers out how to get past her weapon, which he unknowingly likens to invisible hands. Bando has learned that bullets at long range are of no use, while a close-range attack would be suicidal. Realizing that she will soon reach the unfortunate Satou's corpse, he comes up with a plan to shoot a grenade at his late partner's body with a handgun, while distracting her attention from this effort with machine gun fire, keeping more than three meters outside her range at all times. Dodging a tin can that Lucy weaponizes by hurling it hard his way, he gets ready to fire. This plan is cut off summarily as he sees that she went to Satou's corpse to retrieve and use his automatic machine gun, which is now aimed directly at him. Attempting to joke while he dodges her gunfire, Bando is struck in the legs and falls to the sand. In a heartbeat, Lucy is above him, the gun now firmly in her hand, and asks him "Is it fun?"
Trivia[]
- In a trend of chapter cover images not matching the story inside, the one here sees Yuka in light weather clothing, a striped top covering her chest.
|
|