[PastPrime]

Originally Posted by tyranuus

Spoiler for Actually...:

As I understand, in the manga he DOES take a much harsher stance, although he loves Lucy, he cannot forgive her for what was done, and is the one who eventually kills her to prevent the 3rd personality from taking over; the third personality basically being her raw instinct, which in the anime could be taken to be the murderous bandaged being in her head, with all humanity stripped clean away. Kind of a bittersweet ending in the anime really, Nana showed that despite instinct, a diclonius COULD control instinct if given the right motivations and upbringing.
Ironically it was Kouta's lie intended to prevent her from being hurt/getting jealous, which actually pushed her over the edge, as she fell in love with him and yet felt like even he had betrayed her, finally allowing the instinctual malicious side of her being to almost completely take over, and giving up on the majority of her humanity, forming the midway personality; Lucy. I call Lucy midway, as although she is obviously remorseless to the vast degree, there are several signs she is not COMPLETELY gone in this personality incarnation, just any levels of kindness, compassion etc are massively suppressed, but enough remains she has some recognition/awareness, for example she manages to force her own suppression below the Nyuu personality when she realizes she might hurt Kouta.

The end of the anime is pretty debateable as to what actually happens exactly, some people believe the shadow is Nyuu, others Lucy, others believe it is an amalgam of the two merged back together, basically a complete person again, whilst others believe its someone completely different, infact we dont even know if Lucy/Nyuu/Kaede (I believe the manga shows this is her real name) is even still alive, as IIRC the last you see of her is her remaining horn getting shot off.

In the manga

Spoiler:

He tells her that he can never forgive her. That he hates her. But, as she starts to walk away, he pulls her back to him, embraces her, and tells her that if she promises not to use her powers to hurt people, that he would like her to come back to the Maple Inn and live. It doesn't really look like he hates her. After the tragic events that follow, after Kouta takes a bullet meant for her and she thinks that he died and then destroys her body protecting him, when the third personality takes over her dieing body and attacks Kouta both she and Nyuu appear in front of Kouta to protect everyone, but he is the only one who can see them. They ask him to kill their body, and when he hesitates Lucy takes him into her inner world. Their relationship is reset and they are children again, setting on a boulder next to the ocean. He tells her that he doesn't want to kill her because then he will never see her again. She promises that he can see her again. She asks him if he remembers the clearing where they used to meet to play (her dog's grave) and he says yes. She tells him that on the last day of the summer festival she will be waiting there. That she will wait for him forever. She then promises that if she is reincarnated that she will be a good girl and says that it would be nice if she could be by Kouta's side again. But, even with the fading Lucy and Nyuu telling him to shoot or he would die, he could not pull the trigger. But, in the end, the personality in control of Lucy's body, while moaning "pain, pain" handed him the gun and he ended her suffering. Shortly after he got out of the hospital they announced a vaccine, so there would be no more Vector Virus diclonius. After that, every year on the last day of the summer festival he would go to Lucy's dog's grave and wait. On the 10th year he took his daughter Nyuu and told her about his special friend and that is where they would always meet. Then she tells him that is where she meets her friends and that they are twins. She noticed a jar partially buried next to the dog's grave and when Kouta opened it he found a note that child Lucy had left before she went to see him at the festival. It was basically a confession and it was signed Kaede. He reads it and breaks down crying. Then her, apparently diclonius, friends, one of them named Kaede, come to keep an old promise and see their special friend again. And it looks like Kaede, knowing that Kouta doesn't hate her and has forgiven her is on the verge of tears, and biting her lip to keep from crying.