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| - Considered the personal enemy of Lucy, Kurama is a man who's carried more than his fair share of burdens as his life spirals further out of the norm. In any other story, he would be the hero, born from tragedy, rising up to defeat a threat against humanity the likes of which it has never seen before. In Elfen Lied, however, Kurama is merely a man, yet he is a man who has both suffered and inflicted suffering upon others. The decision to kill the newborn Diclonii himself is the birth of Kurama's aloofness and his dissociation from the crimes he'd only then just begun to commit.
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| abstract
| - Considered the personal enemy of Lucy, Kurama is a man who's carried more than his fair share of burdens as his life spirals further out of the norm. In any other story, he would be the hero, born from tragedy, rising up to defeat a threat against humanity the likes of which it has never seen before. In Elfen Lied, however, Kurama is merely a man, yet he is a man who has both suffered and inflicted suffering upon others. Studying an unspecified science at an unnamed university and married to a gentle woman, Kurama's only real worries in life were whether or not Hiromi would finally conceive a child, if her delicate health would stay stable throughout the pregnancy, and that their child would be born healthy. As such, being offered the opportunity to work for a legitimate, if discreet, laboratory by Professor Kakuzawa seemed too good to be true. Given the nature of the Diclonius Research Institute, Kurama learned just how true that was almost right away. The institute did indeed conduct research, but the research was on mutants, most of whom were still children. Children with superpowers and horns growing out of their skulls presented an evolutionary breakthrough, but the experiments conducted upon them were brutal and grotesque. In even blunter words, they were torture. Unlike other scientists in the research facility, Kurama showed displeasure with this brutality and even had to leave the room on at least one occasion due to the grievous harm inflicted upon a young child. Scientists often adopt an aloof nature over the course of their work, much like doctors who must dissociate themselves from the nature of their work in order to stay sane in the face of blood and harm. Kurama, however, was seemingly slower in developing this aloof nature than others. He even regretted Kakuzawa convincing him to join the facility, which he voiced to the colleague in question. However, Kakuzawa didn't share his concerns with the morality of the experiments. Their subjects weren't human, and conducting such research on them would only benefit mankind as a whole. Why should they care about morals or ethics in the face of studying what they considered a threat to humanity? Not only a threat, but a threat that was steadily growing without any clue as to how its source virus was spreading. Kurama, with his wife and unborn child at home, continued to have difficulty with such a concept. As many parents are wont to do, he perhaps imagined his own child being tortured in such inhumane ways, albeit probably not with horns on their head. As the story itself tells, he, unfortunately, would confront such imaginings face-to-face. The harrowing encounter with Silpelit #3 left both Kurama and his fellow associate Oomori changed in ways neither Kurama nor the entire research institute would understand until the birth of Oomori's first child. The infant was born with horns, signifying her to be a Diclonius, but under Chief Kakuzawa's new orders, no more new Silpelits would be admitted to the facility for the sake of space. They were to be killed instead, with the murders explained to the public as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and Oomori's newborn was to be the newest statistic. Despite Oomori's heart-wrenching pleas as Kurama and Kakuzawa tried to appeal to his logical side instead of his fatherly instincts, Kurama came to a decision himself. However much he might have sympathized with Oomori and his situation, Kurama would take the child's blood onto his own hands and spare her father the misery of having to kill her himself. It wouldn't stop at Oomori, however, as he went on to kill other Diclonius children when they turned up in maternity wards throughout the Kamakura area. The decision to kill the newborn Diclonii himself is the birth of Kurama's aloofness and his dissociation from the crimes he'd only then just begun to commit. ( article in progress )
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