Mariko Kurama

Mariko Kurama (AKA Number 35) is a character in the Elfen Lied series. She is a "third generation" Diclonius, a Silpelit born from an infected carrier who inherited the vector virus from a Silpelit who was born from parents infected by a First Generation Diclonius. Mariko was the most powerful of the Diclonii, with some 50 vectors (26 in the Anime) and a long range. She is the daughter of Doctor Kurama and his late wife Hiromi, who made a dying plea that he spare their daughter despite her horns. He agreed to do whatever was demanded of him by Kakuzawa without objection and agreed to be kept away from his daughter, who was kept by Saito in the Diclonius Research Institute. Despite this agreement, Kurama became close to another Silpelit girl, Number 7, or Nana, who called him Papa and believed that he really was. In the anime, Mariko is introduced in episode 10 (Chapter 53 in the manga) when she is released from her isolation chamber. Scientist Saito greeted the emaciated girl upon her emergence, believing they had built up a mother-daughter relationship. Mariko proved her naive when she rejected this idea, tearing Saito apart and sending her upper torso through the control station glass partition to prevent them from stopping her. The dying Saito pressed a button that set off one of the explosives bound into Mariko's body, blowing off her right arm. Shirakawa and Kurama's assistant then took over her handling, warning her of the other explosives to keep her under control. Feeling Kurama's disobedience in not killing the injured Nana broke the agreement to protect Mariko, Chief Kakuzawa sent her and her handlers off to exterminate Nana and capture Kaede/Lucy/Nyu. Mariko was sweet and innocent in some respects and yet had no qualms about lashing out at all Humans, especially those she saw as tormentors, and even fellow Diclonius. She also thought killing was a game, as she demonstrated when she first faced Nana. When Nana extolled the virtues of her 'Papa', Mariko angrily denounced her own and resented Nana for having one, not realizing both were the same man. She managed to manipulate Kurama's assistant Isobe into giving her the codes to the remote that could keep her bombs from exploding. Though overpowered by Mariko, Nana managed to use her ability to disable Mariko's vectors. Kurama then showed up, almost ignoring Nana in favor of Mariko, his true daughter. A military bombardment followed, which Mariko saved them from while briefly becoming an amnesiac like Kaede, saying 'Myu'. During the fighting, Kaede showed up as Lucy, and the control device for Mariko's body bombs was wrecked, making their explosion inevitable. Kurama briefly bonded with his daughter, apologizing for not being the kind of father she deserved. Mariko, accepting her fate and her father's love, urged Nana to take care of him before facing the less powerful but more experienced Lucy for the last time. Though dismembered and finally decapitated by Lucy, the explosion of the bombs inside her also wounded Lucy and forced Nyu's personality back to the surface. Nana later weeps at all the wonderful things in life that Mariko will never know. In the conclusion, Kurama and Nana are seen at Mariko's grave, burying her ashes. In the anime, she is killed along with Kurama when they embrace in a memory of the life they could have had together, before Kurama deliberately sets off her bombs.