AN: I'll be using the setting of Claymore with the addition of some of the mechanics with...
7 Ghosts (Claymore X Worm AU crossover)
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Prologue: Those Who Awaken and The One Who Slumbers
- Location
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AN: I'll be using the setting of Claymore with the addition of some of the mechanics with respect to parahuman powers from worm. Also, just like in canon the fights are liable to be bloody with a lot of decapitations and severed limbs. PG-13 for blood and violence.
Synopsis: The shards of power are distributed across not just one but many dimensions possessing sentient life. Those who receive one sprout an ability defying logic, physics, and sometimes ones own freewill. But it sprouts only in pain and sorrow. It will be nurtured by conflict and chaos until the day comes it blossoms in war. The arms race between humans and descendents, between yoma and warriors, and amongst the voracious eaters has been changed forever. The relevance of an isolated research island to the war on the continent dwindles. On that island the status quo has been shaken and factions will vie in the light and in the darkness for the seeds of a great entity. This is the tale of a world set apart and torn apart. And the life of a number 32 caught in the middle.
Volume 12 Coverart by Norihiro Yagi.
***
***
Prologue: Those Who Awaken and The One Who Slumbers
"No, no no, no."
A girl no older than 8 cradled the head of a woman with long, wavy, blonde locks of hair. Her back was hunched with a heavy burden that had returned to rest on her once again. In her arms, the face of the fallen number 2 almost seemed apologetic.
Behind her a rookie Warrior swiped her blade down at the ground to remove the blood that splashed at her feet before softly returning it to her sheath. The stress of the battle nearly overwhelmed her control, but the new power she walks away with is like ecstasy in her veins. But a voice in the back of her head whispers a question: 'why am I here again?'
It's ignored. "The traitor has been punished." She reminds herself with forced disdain. When her three comrades arrive that's what they hear her whispering to herself with increasing fervor.
"Wow, the newbie took down Teresa when even Ilena, me and Hailey couldn't touch her." Mentioned a short haired warrior, who nevertheless didn't dare come to close to the 'newbie' talking to herself.
"Did you awaken a power?" Asked Ilena with a critical eye.
"Yes, I don't know how to use it yet," she said with a slightly confused frown. "But it knocked us both out temporarily. I was just able to recover a little faster." Added Priscilla with frustration.
"A win is a win." Said Ilena wistfully.
"I think the girl possess a power as well. She was also knocked off her feet. She recovered first, though, so I can't be sure."
Ilena stared at the child who seemed lost in her own world.
"You're right." Ilena confirmed.
"I knew Teresa wouldn't have deserted for just anybody. I wonder what her power was supposed to do. Probably boost their stealth or act as support. Maybe that's how she was so much stronger today. You'd think with all the Knowledge Bearers the organization has they'd bother to form a decent intelligence squad." Mentioned Hailey grumpily. She was the eldest of the four warriors left standing there, but also the weakest.
"Let's take her with us. Headquarters is always looking for new powers to experiment with and even if it's not useful for research she might make a good warrior. Besides, I doubt she'd have any better of a life as an orphan with a power around here."
"Fine." Since powers had only emerged in their generation little was known about how they worked, except they tended to emerge when in despair or under great stress. In order to maximize the strength of the next generation and the available research subjects, the organization prioritized making new warriors from children who had already gained powers, or people closely related to those with powers.
Unspoken was the knowledge that if she wasn't kidnapped by the organization she'd probably be snatched and enslaved by someone else. Near the border of Toulaine and Lautrec it was even odds whether she'd go to the Holy City's Crusader faction or head west as tribute to the Empress.
Ilena studied the girl carefully.
A dark room wrapped in silent screaming. A brother who was not a brother.
She moved forward to take the girl.
Bruises on her stomach, back and thighs, but never anywhere visible. Her throat clamped tight with fear. She did not want to eat it.
She refused to flinch even when she had to pry her away from the corpse she was clinging to.
Her weakness. Her helplessness. Her uselessness. Everything reinforced a thousand fold.
"We will give her a proper burial, child." Ilena reached down to whisper to her. "Teresa told me before this battle began to take care of you in case she fell. Now come with us." She was wary of any surprises, but as she'd suspected her power did not seem related to direct combat. Of course, that just made her potentially even more dangerous. She also suspected her power was not suited towards combat support.
While Hailey may believe she had lost today because of this girl's power, Ilena knew better. Teresa had bested them today, and she'd done it alone. If not for a quirk of fate she likely would have killed even Priscilla. She had done it all with a power that Ilena had thought all but useless for combat. She resolved herself to even more practice and dedication when this mission was over.
"What? We're giving that traitor a proper burial. We ought to just leave the corpse out for the retrieval squad." Declared Priscilla.
"If they want it they can dig it up. I'm not leaving it out." Ilena yanked the girl to her feet. She continued to struggle.
A cliff. Is this the end?...I will follow you. To the end of the earth or even beneath it.
She was about to warn her comrades about their newest charge being possibly suicidal when she saw the girl stare up at Priscilla. On her face, a rictus of hate, despair and something else.
She's rising! My legs...I throw myself in front. Finally, at las-No! No, no, no, no it should have been me. Why? WHY? Don't touch me. You should have left me behi--MverSilAirprofSwoFaiRdntIleHMeeoriDonAbonEs...
'What was that? It didn't make sense, but there was some...weight to it. It was unfamiliar but it felt like it shouldn't have been.' Thought Ilena.
"Hailey, take the child."
"You sure she's safe?"
"Pretty sure her power has something to do with knowledge." Ilena lied to reassure her before pushing the stiff child onto her. She glanced at Priscilla then changed her mind. "Sophia help me create a hole."
A short while later the armor Sophia had manifested around herself dispelled. The hole was done. Ilena rolled Teresa into it. But it didn't fit. Before they could dig further, Priscilla trimmed the feet off and then rearranged her to fit. They then placed her sword onto her corpse and covered both Teresa's body and her claymore.
That is how they left her. An unnamed grave in the wilderness marked only by the slight hump it left in the earth.
Once there had been a custom to leave a warrior's blade to mark their grave. Blade down and hilt up like a monument to a hero. The blade custom stopped when grave robbers grew more daring and public opinion against the so-called "Claymore" dipped to a new low. There was also more of a market for them since in the hands of someone with enhanced strength or endurance it could be wielded despite it's size even by a human.
"This is the end that awaits you if you betray the organization." Whispered Hailey with resignation.
"But you'll probably be eaten by something first. Hopefully we can give it a bellyache going down and coming out." Proposed Sophia with a nasty grin. Storm Rain Hailey attempted to swipe her head, but the blow was dodged. Then she grabbed the blade of the former number 2 and it vanished before their eyes. The child sagged when she saw this.
"Enough. Let's hurry back." Said Ilena picking up the silent child. A carefully controlled blow to the back of the head knocked her out. She would awaken in a carriage heading East carrying one other child, two men in black suits and a single warrior.
AN: Upon this continent the mythos of superheroes does not exist, so rather than calling them capes in the East, headquarters of the organization, they're known simply as "those with powers" or occasionally Hunters although only men dressed in black tended to use that terminology.
To those in Toulouse, dominated by the Holy City of Rabona, it was common to call them the "God-touched" for their superior ability to fight Yomas and voracious eaters. The most prized were those rare ones who could identify yomas or draw them out when they're hiding. They have had limited interaction in any case, with the most troublesome and destructive abilities, that seem concentrated in Alphonse, the frosty north, deep in the jungles of Lautrec in the West, and buried to the South under the sands of Mucha.
Similarly, the word "triggered" is not used to refer to those who receive powers. In the central land of Toulouse the term "touched" is used, while in Sutare, the East, "awaken" has come to refer officially to gaining access to a unique power. Unofficially it is rumored to have another meaning related to releasing youki but this is not spoken of outside the halls of the organization.
Omake: A Study of the "Unnamed Isles"
In the first decade following the emergence of Hunters, there was strong support for withdrawing all usable assets from the Unamed Isles, and sealing off all research projects there. The general sentiment was that these hunters were exactly what they'd tried and failed to achieve for well over a century.
The only thing that stayed their hand was reports of a few descendents or dragon's kin using terrifying, unnatural powers on the battlefield. To combat them a testing facility study the possible interactions of these powers with the similar ones wielded by awakened hybrids was proposed with an emphasis on analyzing hidden dangers and weaknesses. It was also proposed that these powers may hold a key to successfully weaponizing hybridization.
A condition of the mainland's continued support was that Staff now serve as recruiters shipping as many prospective hunters as they could afford back to the homeland. Those leftover were generally people with powers less useful for direct combat such as knowledge, skill granting, or innovator abilities. Later when higher-ups realized the usefulness of innovators when used in groups or with sufficient material support, these two would be shipped off. Of course, a variety of combat powers deemed too weak to be useful were also left to be experimented upon.
In order to collect recruits, kidnapping, blackmail and human trafficking occurred at the hands of unmodified guards and the obedient warriors or failed warriors. This, unfortunately, lead to the deterioration of the Organization's already poor reputation as they were seen as attempting to maintain their monopoly on force.
Predictions that the presence of powers may be related to ones family and blood seemed to pan out for at least the first generation. This led to many unsuccessful attempts at breeding programs.
The gravest mistake was the failure to quickly grasp that although the humans being numerically superior tended to have far more Hunters, the higher quality of Hunters tended to come from stronger beings. This meant hybrids, descendents, and especially powerful awakened hybrids tended to acquire the best powers. Meeting the qualifications to acquire these powers was often an issue, since they far less likely to meet with tragedy and trauma, but for those that did the most frightening abilities tended to appear.
By the time this fact was recognized the Organization's position on the Unnamed Isles was already heavily compromised with a smaller corps of only 40 warriors, made up of those with noncombat powers, weak powers or no powers at all. Little could be done too about the angered populace who had begun mustering around rival coalitions of Hunters.
Synopsis: The shards of power are distributed across not just one but many dimensions possessing sentient life. Those who receive one sprout an ability defying logic, physics, and sometimes ones own freewill. But it sprouts only in pain and sorrow. It will be nurtured by conflict and chaos until the day comes it blossoms in war. The arms race between humans and descendents, between yoma and warriors, and amongst the voracious eaters has been changed forever. The relevance of an isolated research island to the war on the continent dwindles. On that island the status quo has been shaken and factions will vie in the light and in the darkness for the seeds of a great entity. This is the tale of a world set apart and torn apart. And the life of a number 32 caught in the middle.
Volume 12 Coverart by Norihiro Yagi.
***
A few terms you'll definitely need to know are:
Yoma: Predators of mankind that exist on the continent our story is set on. They can disguise themselves as humans they eat and even recall the memories of their victims to make their disguise even more convincing. They have enhanced strength, a regenerative factor, and can spear enemies on extendable claws. Some can even grow wings and fly.
Warriors/Hybrids/Claymore/Silver-Eyed Witches: Developed by the Organization to fight Yomas and Voracious Eaters for a price. They are said to be made by implanting the flesh and blood of a Yoma into a girl. They possess youki (Yoma energy) that gives them enhanced strength, speed and senses. Their ability to sense the youki of yomas allows them to detect Yoma in disguise. They also wield large claymores to execute Yoma they are contracted to kill. Thus, to the general public they are known as Claymores or Silver-Eyed Witches for their silver eyes and white hair. Amoung themselves, however, they refer to each other as warriors and take pride in standing as humanity's ill-appreciated only line of defense until recently.
Organization: A group that occupies the barren Eastern lands in a location called staff where they collect orphans or children who are sold by their parents to be experimented upon and turned into Human-Yoma Hybrids. Their customary form of dress is to wear all black. They also collect exorbitant and painfully high fees from villages and towns in exchange for sending one of their warriors to cleanse it from Yoma.
Voracious Eaters/Awakened ones: They are referred to as voracious eaters when the Organization or its warriors interact with the public. They claim these are long-lived Yoma who have managed to evolve. There are some whispers, however, that these Yomas who can easily massacre whole villages by brute force are actually former warriors. This theory has never been corroborated, but it is known that warriors are sometimes known to shout to one another in battles with these voracious eaters to be careful to not go over some limit....
Dragon's-kin/Descendents: A word known only to the black coated men of the organization. It is spoken of with fear and hatred.
Yoma: Predators of mankind that exist on the continent our story is set on. They can disguise themselves as humans they eat and even recall the memories of their victims to make their disguise even more convincing. They have enhanced strength, a regenerative factor, and can spear enemies on extendable claws. Some can even grow wings and fly.
Warriors/Hybrids/Claymore/Silver-Eyed Witches: Developed by the Organization to fight Yomas and Voracious Eaters for a price. They are said to be made by implanting the flesh and blood of a Yoma into a girl. They possess youki (Yoma energy) that gives them enhanced strength, speed and senses. Their ability to sense the youki of yomas allows them to detect Yoma in disguise. They also wield large claymores to execute Yoma they are contracted to kill. Thus, to the general public they are known as Claymores or Silver-Eyed Witches for their silver eyes and white hair. Amoung themselves, however, they refer to each other as warriors and take pride in standing as humanity's ill-appreciated only line of defense until recently.
Organization: A group that occupies the barren Eastern lands in a location called staff where they collect orphans or children who are sold by their parents to be experimented upon and turned into Human-Yoma Hybrids. Their customary form of dress is to wear all black. They also collect exorbitant and painfully high fees from villages and towns in exchange for sending one of their warriors to cleanse it from Yoma.
Voracious Eaters/Awakened ones: They are referred to as voracious eaters when the Organization or its warriors interact with the public. They claim these are long-lived Yoma who have managed to evolve. There are some whispers, however, that these Yomas who can easily massacre whole villages by brute force are actually former warriors. This theory has never been corroborated, but it is known that warriors are sometimes known to shout to one another in battles with these voracious eaters to be careful to not go over some limit....
Dragon's-kin/Descendents: A word known only to the black coated men of the organization. It is spoken of with fear and hatred.
***
Prologue: Those Who Awaken and The One Who Slumbers
"No, no no, no."
A girl no older than 8 cradled the head of a woman with long, wavy, blonde locks of hair. Her back was hunched with a heavy burden that had returned to rest on her once again. In her arms, the face of the fallen number 2 almost seemed apologetic.
Behind her a rookie Warrior swiped her blade down at the ground to remove the blood that splashed at her feet before softly returning it to her sheath. The stress of the battle nearly overwhelmed her control, but the new power she walks away with is like ecstasy in her veins. But a voice in the back of her head whispers a question: 'why am I here again?'
It's ignored. "The traitor has been punished." She reminds herself with forced disdain. When her three comrades arrive that's what they hear her whispering to herself with increasing fervor.
"Wow, the newbie took down Teresa when even Ilena, me and Hailey couldn't touch her." Mentioned a short haired warrior, who nevertheless didn't dare come to close to the 'newbie' talking to herself.
"Did you awaken a power?" Asked Ilena with a critical eye.
"Yes, I don't know how to use it yet," she said with a slightly confused frown. "But it knocked us both out temporarily. I was just able to recover a little faster." Added Priscilla with frustration.
"A win is a win." Said Ilena wistfully.
"I think the girl possess a power as well. She was also knocked off her feet. She recovered first, though, so I can't be sure."
Ilena stared at the child who seemed lost in her own world.
"You're right." Ilena confirmed.
"I knew Teresa wouldn't have deserted for just anybody. I wonder what her power was supposed to do. Probably boost their stealth or act as support. Maybe that's how she was so much stronger today. You'd think with all the Knowledge Bearers the organization has they'd bother to form a decent intelligence squad." Mentioned Hailey grumpily. She was the eldest of the four warriors left standing there, but also the weakest.
"Let's take her with us. Headquarters is always looking for new powers to experiment with and even if it's not useful for research she might make a good warrior. Besides, I doubt she'd have any better of a life as an orphan with a power around here."
"Fine." Since powers had only emerged in their generation little was known about how they worked, except they tended to emerge when in despair or under great stress. In order to maximize the strength of the next generation and the available research subjects, the organization prioritized making new warriors from children who had already gained powers, or people closely related to those with powers.
Unspoken was the knowledge that if she wasn't kidnapped by the organization she'd probably be snatched and enslaved by someone else. Near the border of Toulaine and Lautrec it was even odds whether she'd go to the Holy City's Crusader faction or head west as tribute to the Empress.
Ilena studied the girl carefully.
A dark room wrapped in silent screaming. A brother who was not a brother.
She moved forward to take the girl.
Bruises on her stomach, back and thighs, but never anywhere visible. Her throat clamped tight with fear. She did not want to eat it.
She refused to flinch even when she had to pry her away from the corpse she was clinging to.
Her weakness. Her helplessness. Her uselessness. Everything reinforced a thousand fold.
"We will give her a proper burial, child." Ilena reached down to whisper to her. "Teresa told me before this battle began to take care of you in case she fell. Now come with us." She was wary of any surprises, but as she'd suspected her power did not seem related to direct combat. Of course, that just made her potentially even more dangerous. She also suspected her power was not suited towards combat support.
While Hailey may believe she had lost today because of this girl's power, Ilena knew better. Teresa had bested them today, and she'd done it alone. If not for a quirk of fate she likely would have killed even Priscilla. She had done it all with a power that Ilena had thought all but useless for combat. She resolved herself to even more practice and dedication when this mission was over.
"What? We're giving that traitor a proper burial. We ought to just leave the corpse out for the retrieval squad." Declared Priscilla.
"If they want it they can dig it up. I'm not leaving it out." Ilena yanked the girl to her feet. She continued to struggle.
A cliff. Is this the end?...I will follow you. To the end of the earth or even beneath it.
She was about to warn her comrades about their newest charge being possibly suicidal when she saw the girl stare up at Priscilla. On her face, a rictus of hate, despair and something else.
She's rising! My legs...I throw myself in front. Finally, at las-No! No, no, no, no it should have been me. Why? WHY? Don't touch me. You should have left me behi--MverSilAirprofSwoFaiRdntIleHMeeoriDonAbonEs...
'What was that? It didn't make sense, but there was some...weight to it. It was unfamiliar but it felt like it shouldn't have been.' Thought Ilena.
"Hailey, take the child."
"You sure she's safe?"
"Pretty sure her power has something to do with knowledge." Ilena lied to reassure her before pushing the stiff child onto her. She glanced at Priscilla then changed her mind. "Sophia help me create a hole."
A short while later the armor Sophia had manifested around herself dispelled. The hole was done. Ilena rolled Teresa into it. But it didn't fit. Before they could dig further, Priscilla trimmed the feet off and then rearranged her to fit. They then placed her sword onto her corpse and covered both Teresa's body and her claymore.
That is how they left her. An unnamed grave in the wilderness marked only by the slight hump it left in the earth.
Once there had been a custom to leave a warrior's blade to mark their grave. Blade down and hilt up like a monument to a hero. The blade custom stopped when grave robbers grew more daring and public opinion against the so-called "Claymore" dipped to a new low. There was also more of a market for them since in the hands of someone with enhanced strength or endurance it could be wielded despite it's size even by a human.
"This is the end that awaits you if you betray the organization." Whispered Hailey with resignation.
"But you'll probably be eaten by something first. Hopefully we can give it a bellyache going down and coming out." Proposed Sophia with a nasty grin. Storm Rain Hailey attempted to swipe her head, but the blow was dodged. Then she grabbed the blade of the former number 2 and it vanished before their eyes. The child sagged when she saw this.
"Enough. Let's hurry back." Said Ilena picking up the silent child. A carefully controlled blow to the back of the head knocked her out. She would awaken in a carriage heading East carrying one other child, two men in black suits and a single warrior.
***
AN: Upon this continent the mythos of superheroes does not exist, so rather than calling them capes in the East, headquarters of the organization, they're known simply as "those with powers" or occasionally Hunters although only men dressed in black tended to use that terminology.
To those in Toulouse, dominated by the Holy City of Rabona, it was common to call them the "God-touched" for their superior ability to fight Yomas and voracious eaters. The most prized were those rare ones who could identify yomas or draw them out when they're hiding. They have had limited interaction in any case, with the most troublesome and destructive abilities, that seem concentrated in Alphonse, the frosty north, deep in the jungles of Lautrec in the West, and buried to the South under the sands of Mucha.
Similarly, the word "triggered" is not used to refer to those who receive powers. In the central land of Toulouse the term "touched" is used, while in Sutare, the East, "awaken" has come to refer officially to gaining access to a unique power. Unofficially it is rumored to have another meaning related to releasing youki but this is not spoken of outside the halls of the organization.
***
Omake: A Study of the "Unnamed Isles"
In the first decade following the emergence of Hunters, there was strong support for withdrawing all usable assets from the Unamed Isles, and sealing off all research projects there. The general sentiment was that these hunters were exactly what they'd tried and failed to achieve for well over a century.
The only thing that stayed their hand was reports of a few descendents or dragon's kin using terrifying, unnatural powers on the battlefield. To combat them a testing facility study the possible interactions of these powers with the similar ones wielded by awakened hybrids was proposed with an emphasis on analyzing hidden dangers and weaknesses. It was also proposed that these powers may hold a key to successfully weaponizing hybridization.
A condition of the mainland's continued support was that Staff now serve as recruiters shipping as many prospective hunters as they could afford back to the homeland. Those leftover were generally people with powers less useful for direct combat such as knowledge, skill granting, or innovator abilities. Later when higher-ups realized the usefulness of innovators when used in groups or with sufficient material support, these two would be shipped off. Of course, a variety of combat powers deemed too weak to be useful were also left to be experimented upon.
In order to collect recruits, kidnapping, blackmail and human trafficking occurred at the hands of unmodified guards and the obedient warriors or failed warriors. This, unfortunately, lead to the deterioration of the Organization's already poor reputation as they were seen as attempting to maintain their monopoly on force.
Predictions that the presence of powers may be related to ones family and blood seemed to pan out for at least the first generation. This led to many unsuccessful attempts at breeding programs.
The gravest mistake was the failure to quickly grasp that although the humans being numerically superior tended to have far more Hunters, the higher quality of Hunters tended to come from stronger beings. This meant hybrids, descendents, and especially powerful awakened hybrids tended to acquire the best powers. Meeting the qualifications to acquire these powers was often an issue, since they far less likely to meet with tragedy and trauma, but for those that did the most frightening abilities tended to appear.
By the time this fact was recognized the Organization's position on the Unnamed Isles was already heavily compromised with a smaller corps of only 40 warriors, made up of those with noncombat powers, weak powers or no powers at all. Little could be done too about the angered populace who had begun mustering around rival coalitions of Hunters.
Last edited:
Character List (spoilers), geography and Race info
- Location
- CA
By the way, if you are interested in checking out and reading Claymore. The cheapest way to do so legally and support the author, as far as I know, is to buy the boxed set of 27 volumes at around $146. Here is it at Amazon.
If you're in the UK I found it for $117 through Barnes and Noble. Plus shipping.
If you're in the UK I found it for $117 through Barnes and Noble. Plus shipping.
Prologue:
Teresa/Teresa of the Faint Smile (#1) = Adoptive mother of Clare. She disobeyed the organization's orders for the sake of Clare leading to her execution at the hands of Ilena (2), Sophia, Storm Rain Hailey and Priscilla.
Priscilla (#1) = A brand new warrior who according to Clare's sight has a deep self-loathing and desire for her own demise. Possesses an unknown power after the battle with Teresa.
Clare/trainee = According to the Organization she possesses a power to perceive weaknesses or vulnerabilities. They strangely seemed to hope for more. She lost a hand in chapter 1 (left hand and note Clare is right-handed).
Ilena (#2)/Quicksword Ilena= She possesses an unknown power that seems to give her some insight. She also pushes the others to respectfully bury Teresa.
Sophia (#3 or 4) = not weaker than Noel apparently.
Storm Rain Hailey (#3 or #4)
Chapter 1:
Jacklyn: Fellow survivor of hybridization process. Has a power that causes people to laugh if they're even brushed by her sword.
Selene: Fellow survivor of hybridization process. Used in a test in chapter 2. Also confronts protagonist is chapter 5.
Aimee: fellow survivor of the hybridization process.
Instructor Auburn = Slightly colored hair may be evidence of incomplete hybridization. Teaches trainees. Suggests studying ahead to check if she's a defensive type to Clare to see if she can regenerate her hand.
Chapter 2:
Instructor Chloe = Teaches Clare about offensive and defensive types and different types of regeneration.
Samantha and Zara = Two students from the class above Clare's.
Chapter 3:
Ysildre = sent her black card to Teresa. Has a power to see similar alternate dimensions and gain insight about people and events had things gone differently. Probably dead at this time. Teresa copied her memory.
Unknown elder = brings an offer to Teresa that is rejected
Chapter 4:
Rebecca= peer of Clare who partners with her.
Odette, Dorothy, Reina = older trainees that fight in the joint exercise. Odette and Dorothy do not possess a power. Reina appears to have some ability to modify and also copy sounds around her.
Chapter 5:
Hysteria the Elegant (#1) = massacres countless warriors who were her comrades on Rockwell hill. Almost overwhelms Clare's mind.
Ysildre/Alexandria/? = Conglomeration that saves Clare. Alexandria appeared to be a very burly warrior. She was #2 in Hysteria's generation.
Interlude: Fel
Fel (regional director) who comes up with a genetic theory behind the mysterious new powers. Also suggests a change in Innovator's classification and increase in precautions against the Scholar's guild
Radomel (has a son named Rado who seems to be shadowing him)
Orsay (opposed assassination of a saint), Gotho (supported assassination)
Rimuto (Head Chief)
Dae (Head of Research and Development)
Father Damien and Sister Naomi = Power Users working with the Rabonian church or Saintshold who can detect yoma.
Abel (underling of Dae)
Miranda =Assistant of Dae. Came up with contagion theory of power users/God-touched.
Elda= Awakened being and Innovator. She fought the cleansing hand resulting in a briar wall forming that cut off the Southern lands/Mucha from everywhere else.
Holly = Innovator type power user and warrior who used salvaged parts from an awakened innovator to build her own armor.
Saints = division of power users who are considered by the Rabonian church to be God-touched.
Crusade faction = a group in Rabona that blames the Northern alliance of "Yoma."
Scholar's Guild = wealthy economic power that possesses around two dozen Innovator type power users which is based in Rabona. Has grown in power partly due to neglect of the Organization to kidnap or aggressively recruit Innovator types.
The Cleansing Hand: A criminal organization committed to cleansing the land of Yoma. Divides villages in half and massacres the half that is identified as "infected." Believes the Yoma are a plague that must be thoroughly cleansed including livestock.
Caiman College = A research facility focused on power combinations and creating disposable armies of powered fighters.
Chapter 6:
Elise=Trainee in the same team as Jacklyn, Clare and Elise. Likes to drink.
Evelyn= Trainee in the same team as Jacklyn, Clare and Elise. Good at sensing.
Chapter 7:
Morel=handler of the group of trainees Clare is a part of.
Lily=Trainee who is assigned to join Clare's group to replace their fallen member.
Chapter 8:
Eva (13) = Knowledge Bearer type power user who is responsible for important investigations. Power manifests as a conglomeration of eyeballs only she can see that she speaks to. Sees Clare as unfriendly and uncouth.
Kujira of the Nothingness (#3)
Heat Haze Hilda (#8)
Chapter 9:
Number 10 = Warrior who has some power or technique that allows her to make groups fall asleep or hallucinate.
Ophelia (#7)= Older Sister Ophelia = The Voracious Cannibal? = An insane Claymore with a fetish for Awakened Beings. She volunteers with the Retrieval Squad and for extra Awakened Hunts. Her power may have knowing her targets name for a condition. It has something to do with probability, and a minor knowledge bearer ability that is biased somehow.
Interlude: Dauf Riful
Dauf= Riful's lover. An awakened being. He seems to mess up a lot.
Riful = The boss who has broken up with Dauf (for his own benefit?). She seems intelligent and calculating but also ruthless and a megalomaniac.
Zaki= A certain someone's brother who gets mixed up on a rebellion and beheaded. His power had some condition making it possible to stop him if dealt with quickly. A master or in Claymore jargon a Commander with a subclass as a manipulator.
Rose: Awakened Being who was the rebellion leader but also a pawn for another party.
Chronos and Lars = Dead Awakened Beings, which Riful does not believe could have been involved.
? = A person or Awakened Being with a power that let them change people's appearance to match Zaki. He or she joined in the rebellion and helped them buy time.
Chapter 11:
Blind Sentinel=a figure in black who wanders rural areas wearing a blindfold. She can find and fight yoma and bandits with powerful swordsmanship. Her power appears to have to do with cloning. She has also picked up two helpers.
??? = one of the Blind Sentinel's helpers has some commander power to create minions which grow in strength as they kill or maim others. Highly offended and responsible for the Easton massacre that the Blind Sentinel stopped.
Interlude: Fiona
Fiona= a power user who was driven out of her village because her husband was a yoma. She gained a collector type power that draws in ambient heat and makes her fireproof. She can also emit this heat in concentrated blasts. She was taken to the farm before being rescued by the blind sentinel and her companions. She was then taken along with the others from the farm and the many children to the North and Isley took them in and gave them jobs and security in exchange for their loyalty. She intends to save up and purchase gear from innovators and learn more about weapons handling before leaving south.
Chapter 12:
Eliza (19)= a warrior who is part of Ophelia's awakened hunt party and trusts Ophelia because of her good track record on hunts.
Wendy (30) = An innovator with a specialty in using gases and wind technology. She carries a pouch of single-use chemical containers, but says they are only useful to irritate and buy time.
Nimue (12) = Awakened Being with a rhinoceros like form and not terribly bright given she falls for Ophelia's trap. She also has a power that affects memory. Survives the battle with Ophelia's team and kills Wendy.
Chapter 13:
James the "Absolved" = he was kicked out of the Saints. His power allows him to erase the memories of other people's close attachments.
Interlude Isley
Laeticia = An subordinate of Isley who is a single-digit from Riful's generation. Appears to be challenged regularly but has a partner Diana who can pull her out if she gets into trouble. Appears to be stationed in the West with an offer that is not being heard.
Xavier, Cassie, and Sonatas = Two awakened and a stealth expert that make up Rigardo's pick for a scouting team. Isley proposes adding a young boy too with a power that helps him determine how dangerous being are.
Rigardo = Isley's Lieutenant, and helps organise a scouting party. He is not being kept fully in the loop by Isley, who mistrusts him.
A Female Awakened Being = referred to as "bloody" and jealous by Isley.
An unknown Innovator = working on the drug Extremis. Was liberated along with the others by the Blind Sentinel from the Farm and sent to Isley in the North.
Chapter 14:
John Gramme = A clerk for a weapon and equipment shop of the Scholar's Guild that provides high maintenance Innovator/Artisan Devices for extravagant prices. They also stock cheaper equipment, which are failed versions, early drafts, testing models or by Innovators/artisans with a grudge against yoma who simply want to arm the masses.
The Red Hand=A splinter group of the cleansing Hand that is far less organized with basically every bandit group, thieves band or rebel wanting to call themselves this borrowing the name. They are generally united less by their hatred of yoma, and more by their hatred of those called "God-touched."
Chapter 15:
Valkyrie Company=A mercenary company run by Grisha with multiple power users. They received a contract with another mercenary company to reinforce the army of Crusaders and Saints.
Heather= A brawler/brute who wields a large yet light morning star. She is a part of the Valkyrie Company.
Grisha= Leader of the Valkyrie company
Jaeger=Member of the Valkyrie Company who can control and reinforce leaves into decently dangerous spinning, ranged weapons.
Erinyes Gale=Wears leather armor and a broad axe with a streak of white hair. She has a power that allows her to generate a pocket dimension. She is a former member of the Valkyrie Company and now wants to form a new mercenary group.
Father Vincent= Commander of the army led by the church of Rabona that is heading south.
Captain Ricardo=Right hand man of Father Vincent
Chapter 16:
Chloe=Another Member of the Valkyrie Company.
Might=A drug spread by the East which gives people enhanced strength, speed, and regenerative ability. This boost does not match up to the power of a full warrior. Extensive use appears to lead to some of the enhancement becoming permanent as well as physiological changes such as white hair. It is hinted to be addictive, and the drug Extremis may be developed based off of Might.
Interlude: Father Vincent
Father Vincent=A priest of Rabona who leads their Army south following some knowledge bearer's advice and due to the complete lack of good alternatives. He hopes he is not making a mistake, and knows the cost of even his best move may be quite high. He appears to be becoming a Yoma.
Rafaela (discharged #2)=Blind Sentinel=A Warrior who was removed from the ranks long ago. She is the sister of Luciela who awakened and became the Abysmal one of the South. She appears to know Father Vincent, and joins his army for personal reasons. She has promised to kill him if he loses control.
Chapter 17:
Neptune Verilius=Grandfather of the Cleansing Hand whose theories about the infectious nature of Yoma and preventative measures were ignored until after his death. He spent a number of "dark" years where no one knows what he did before reappearing with his theory, and only gained a small following in the North.
Saint Naomi=One of the earliest Saints and supposedly took in the Heretic as a protegy. She was also mentioned in the interlude as one of the few with the capability to discern yoma even when they're in disguise.
Chapter 18:
Saint Henry=rumored to either be The Heretic or have been killed by him.
Raphael=Instituted the Code of Safe Passage to protect refugees who were involved in yoma attacks and wish to resettle in Saintshold. Most likely a saint.
Father Damien = Instituted the Code of Safe Passage to protect refugees who were involved in yoma attacks and wish to resettle in Saintshold. A Father in the Rabonian church, bu who was also mentioned in the first Interlude as one of the few who could detect Yoma, which suggests he also has powers.
Chapter 19
Tom=Member of the Valkyrie Company who can fly. He questions what Erin is doing with Clare and Ophelia in the South instead of heading back home.
Lyta=Saint who can apparently detect Yoma, but she says she is still in training. Based on her usage of her power she likely uses some form of body temperature classification.
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Ilena=former number 1 demoted to number 2 and now running around with a bunch of awakened beings. She claims to have awakened and then returned back to full Claymore form as evidenced by her retaining the white hair and silver eyes. She claims to have lost her sword and enjoys using Clares to intimidate her and Ophelia, but ultimately says it belongs with Clare. Wanted to capture and give Rafaela to Luciela.
Interlude: Rafaela
Bishop Kamuri = Convinced Rafaela to leave her cave. She left but only to train. Her "good deeds" and legend as the Blind Sentinel apparently were an accident that later happened.
Father Rodo = believes Rabona herself gives powers. Appears to have known Rafaela.
Chapter 22
Sebastian = The hairy awakened being with oversized arms that can fire air blasts. He made his debut attacking them in chapter 18.
Interlude: Lilith
Lilith Bainwright = One of Rafaela's two helpers. A "god-touched" member of the Red Hand who seems to take joy in chaos and scale of the battle around her. She has a power letting her lighten or increase things around her, although, it becomes harder the farther they are from her and she requires at least line of sight. She helps the Enormous construct Diane's power generates fight.
Diane = The "god-touched" with an ability to create small and weak life-forms which evolve and increase in size and strength based upon the amount of death, destruction and conflict around it. She uses the violence of the Human Army fighting the Awakened army to generate a colossal lifeform many times the size of the other Awakened there. It appears to eat or scare off the other Awakened and then make it's way towards the Luciela vs Rafaela fight.
Chapter 24:
Galatea (#4) = A warrior who has exceptional youki sensing ability and a long range making her the "eye" of the Organization. Her replacement, however, is almost complete causing her to begin to look for outside options to escape. She appears to have some sort of Archer power that lets her disguise herself as animals or plants. Under such a disguise she can perform her youki technique to disrupt enemy movements.
#1 and #2 = Twin warriors who seem almost like empty, expressionless dolls. They appear to have danger levels comparable to Abyssal class. Even holding back they can easily handle 4 Awakened Beings without a scratch.
Chapter 26:
Europa Avignon = High Ranking Awakened Being who is incredibly lazy and yet trusted by Riful to act as one of the gate guards. She has a technique allowing her to feign death, and is seen as the only shot Lyta has of escaping until she meets Raki and Priscilla.
White Faction and Blue Faction = Two groups of "god-touched," awakened beings and possibly even Claymore or yoma that drill together in heterogeneous groups under Riful's direction. They each faction is kept somewhat separated from the other factions and with a mix of powered humans and Awakened beings to prevent a large uprising.
Chapter 27:
Raki Sand = Human companion of Priscilla, who somehow possesses some of her affections. Naive or just suicidal?
Priscilla (former #1) = Awakened and then disappeared until she showed up hanging around Raki for months after being nursed back to health. Appears to want to follow him and is treated like a child by Raki who doesn't appear aware of her true nature.
Zaki Sand = killed in Riful and Dauf interlude. Had a potent master power, and Riful was particularly annoyed at killing him. Appears to have been manipulated by some other power or group.
Rose = Awakened Being who worked with Zaki in the Riful and Dauf interlude and concocted a failed coup scheme.
Mimir = Someone with a power to detect lifeforms in a wide radius, but it has difficulty distinguishing between humans and sufficiently large or numerous animals.
Gargoyle constructs = Created by someone and used as border guards by Riful to separate the various factions. They appear to have enough sentience and autonomy to be bribed.
Interlude: The little game and the great game
Teresa = appears to be holding back from interfering in some way to avoid merging with Clare that she feels will cause Clare to merely become her shadow. She is encouraged by some other warrior in the dreamlike world they meet in to take a more active role.
Paul Mercott, Fredrica Mercott, Johansson Mercott = Three humans trapped in the first floor of Riful's basement that the protagonists explore. They are abandoned as they appear to have no way of freeing them and don't want to loose any time. They were being held hostage against Greta Mercott
The following were freed by Lyta, Erin, Raki and Priscilla from Rifulk$ dungeon.
Deirdre Pacific = Rabona ties?
Diane Wine = Isley ties (mentioned in Isley interlude)
Leticia Wine = Isley ties (mentioned in Isley interlude)
Naomi Xa = mainland ties?
Flora Noe = Organization warrior
Astrid Mathilde = Ties to "The Phantoms."
Wave Crawbert = Righteous saint?
Orion Salem = useless human.
"Clare" = Looks like Clare, smells like Clare, doesn't dress like Clare, but apparently knows and hates Priscilla. She has strangely good self-control, and has said to Erinyes that she's not the Clare of this place.
Teresa/Teresa of the Faint Smile (#1) = Adoptive mother of Clare. She disobeyed the organization's orders for the sake of Clare leading to her execution at the hands of Ilena (2), Sophia, Storm Rain Hailey and Priscilla.
Priscilla (#1) = A brand new warrior who according to Clare's sight has a deep self-loathing and desire for her own demise. Possesses an unknown power after the battle with Teresa.
Clare/trainee = According to the Organization she possesses a power to perceive weaknesses or vulnerabilities. They strangely seemed to hope for more. She lost a hand in chapter 1 (left hand and note Clare is right-handed).
Ilena (#2)/Quicksword Ilena= She possesses an unknown power that seems to give her some insight. She also pushes the others to respectfully bury Teresa.
Sophia (#3 or 4) = not weaker than Noel apparently.
Storm Rain Hailey (#3 or #4)
Chapter 1:
Jacklyn: Fellow survivor of hybridization process. Has a power that causes people to laugh if they're even brushed by her sword.
Selene: Fellow survivor of hybridization process. Used in a test in chapter 2. Also confronts protagonist is chapter 5.
Aimee: fellow survivor of the hybridization process.
Instructor Auburn = Slightly colored hair may be evidence of incomplete hybridization. Teaches trainees. Suggests studying ahead to check if she's a defensive type to Clare to see if she can regenerate her hand.
Chapter 2:
Instructor Chloe = Teaches Clare about offensive and defensive types and different types of regeneration.
Samantha and Zara = Two students from the class above Clare's.
Chapter 3:
Ysildre = sent her black card to Teresa. Has a power to see similar alternate dimensions and gain insight about people and events had things gone differently. Probably dead at this time. Teresa copied her memory.
Unknown elder = brings an offer to Teresa that is rejected
Chapter 4:
Rebecca= peer of Clare who partners with her.
Odette, Dorothy, Reina = older trainees that fight in the joint exercise. Odette and Dorothy do not possess a power. Reina appears to have some ability to modify and also copy sounds around her.
Chapter 5:
Hysteria the Elegant (#1) = massacres countless warriors who were her comrades on Rockwell hill. Almost overwhelms Clare's mind.
Ysildre/Alexandria/? = Conglomeration that saves Clare. Alexandria appeared to be a very burly warrior. She was #2 in Hysteria's generation.
Interlude: Fel
Fel (regional director) who comes up with a genetic theory behind the mysterious new powers. Also suggests a change in Innovator's classification and increase in precautions against the Scholar's guild
Radomel (has a son named Rado who seems to be shadowing him)
Orsay (opposed assassination of a saint), Gotho (supported assassination)
Rimuto (Head Chief)
Dae (Head of Research and Development)
Father Damien and Sister Naomi = Power Users working with the Rabonian church or Saintshold who can detect yoma.
Abel (underling of Dae)
Miranda =Assistant of Dae. Came up with contagion theory of power users/God-touched.
Elda= Awakened being and Innovator. She fought the cleansing hand resulting in a briar wall forming that cut off the Southern lands/Mucha from everywhere else.
Holly = Innovator type power user and warrior who used salvaged parts from an awakened innovator to build her own armor.
Saints = division of power users who are considered by the Rabonian church to be God-touched.
Crusade faction = a group in Rabona that blames the Northern alliance of "Yoma."
Scholar's Guild = wealthy economic power that possesses around two dozen Innovator type power users which is based in Rabona. Has grown in power partly due to neglect of the Organization to kidnap or aggressively recruit Innovator types.
The Cleansing Hand: A criminal organization committed to cleansing the land of Yoma. Divides villages in half and massacres the half that is identified as "infected." Believes the Yoma are a plague that must be thoroughly cleansed including livestock.
Caiman College = A research facility focused on power combinations and creating disposable armies of powered fighters.
Chapter 6:
Elise=Trainee in the same team as Jacklyn, Clare and Elise. Likes to drink.
Evelyn= Trainee in the same team as Jacklyn, Clare and Elise. Good at sensing.
Chapter 7:
Morel=handler of the group of trainees Clare is a part of.
Lily=Trainee who is assigned to join Clare's group to replace their fallen member.
Chapter 8:
Eva (13) = Knowledge Bearer type power user who is responsible for important investigations. Power manifests as a conglomeration of eyeballs only she can see that she speaks to. Sees Clare as unfriendly and uncouth.
Kujira of the Nothingness (#3)
Heat Haze Hilda (#8)
Chapter 9:
Number 10 = Warrior who has some power or technique that allows her to make groups fall asleep or hallucinate.
Ophelia (#7)= Older Sister Ophelia = The Voracious Cannibal? = An insane Claymore with a fetish for Awakened Beings. She volunteers with the Retrieval Squad and for extra Awakened Hunts. Her power may have knowing her targets name for a condition. It has something to do with probability, and a minor knowledge bearer ability that is biased somehow.
Interlude: Dauf Riful
Dauf= Riful's lover. An awakened being. He seems to mess up a lot.
Riful = The boss who has broken up with Dauf (for his own benefit?). She seems intelligent and calculating but also ruthless and a megalomaniac.
Zaki= A certain someone's brother who gets mixed up on a rebellion and beheaded. His power had some condition making it possible to stop him if dealt with quickly. A master or in Claymore jargon a Commander with a subclass as a manipulator.
Rose: Awakened Being who was the rebellion leader but also a pawn for another party.
Chronos and Lars = Dead Awakened Beings, which Riful does not believe could have been involved.
? = A person or Awakened Being with a power that let them change people's appearance to match Zaki. He or she joined in the rebellion and helped them buy time.
Chapter 11:
Blind Sentinel=a figure in black who wanders rural areas wearing a blindfold. She can find and fight yoma and bandits with powerful swordsmanship. Her power appears to have to do with cloning. She has also picked up two helpers.
??? = one of the Blind Sentinel's helpers has some commander power to create minions which grow in strength as they kill or maim others. Highly offended and responsible for the Easton massacre that the Blind Sentinel stopped.
Interlude: Fiona
Fiona= a power user who was driven out of her village because her husband was a yoma. She gained a collector type power that draws in ambient heat and makes her fireproof. She can also emit this heat in concentrated blasts. She was taken to the farm before being rescued by the blind sentinel and her companions. She was then taken along with the others from the farm and the many children to the North and Isley took them in and gave them jobs and security in exchange for their loyalty. She intends to save up and purchase gear from innovators and learn more about weapons handling before leaving south.
Chapter 12:
Eliza (19)= a warrior who is part of Ophelia's awakened hunt party and trusts Ophelia because of her good track record on hunts.
Wendy (30) = An innovator with a specialty in using gases and wind technology. She carries a pouch of single-use chemical containers, but says they are only useful to irritate and buy time.
Nimue (12) = Awakened Being with a rhinoceros like form and not terribly bright given she falls for Ophelia's trap. She also has a power that affects memory. Survives the battle with Ophelia's team and kills Wendy.
Chapter 13:
James the "Absolved" = he was kicked out of the Saints. His power allows him to erase the memories of other people's close attachments.
Interlude Isley
Laeticia = An subordinate of Isley who is a single-digit from Riful's generation. Appears to be challenged regularly but has a partner Diana who can pull her out if she gets into trouble. Appears to be stationed in the West with an offer that is not being heard.
Xavier, Cassie, and Sonatas = Two awakened and a stealth expert that make up Rigardo's pick for a scouting team. Isley proposes adding a young boy too with a power that helps him determine how dangerous being are.
Rigardo = Isley's Lieutenant, and helps organise a scouting party. He is not being kept fully in the loop by Isley, who mistrusts him.
A Female Awakened Being = referred to as "bloody" and jealous by Isley.
An unknown Innovator = working on the drug Extremis. Was liberated along with the others by the Blind Sentinel from the Farm and sent to Isley in the North.
Chapter 14:
John Gramme = A clerk for a weapon and equipment shop of the Scholar's Guild that provides high maintenance Innovator/Artisan Devices for extravagant prices. They also stock cheaper equipment, which are failed versions, early drafts, testing models or by Innovators/artisans with a grudge against yoma who simply want to arm the masses.
The Red Hand=A splinter group of the cleansing Hand that is far less organized with basically every bandit group, thieves band or rebel wanting to call themselves this borrowing the name. They are generally united less by their hatred of yoma, and more by their hatred of those called "God-touched."
Chapter 15:
Valkyrie Company=A mercenary company run by Grisha with multiple power users. They received a contract with another mercenary company to reinforce the army of Crusaders and Saints.
Heather= A brawler/brute who wields a large yet light morning star. She is a part of the Valkyrie Company.
Grisha= Leader of the Valkyrie company
Jaeger=Member of the Valkyrie Company who can control and reinforce leaves into decently dangerous spinning, ranged weapons.
Erinyes Gale=Wears leather armor and a broad axe with a streak of white hair. She has a power that allows her to generate a pocket dimension. She is a former member of the Valkyrie Company and now wants to form a new mercenary group.
Father Vincent= Commander of the army led by the church of Rabona that is heading south.
Captain Ricardo=Right hand man of Father Vincent
Chapter 16:
Chloe=Another Member of the Valkyrie Company.
Might=A drug spread by the East which gives people enhanced strength, speed, and regenerative ability. This boost does not match up to the power of a full warrior. Extensive use appears to lead to some of the enhancement becoming permanent as well as physiological changes such as white hair. It is hinted to be addictive, and the drug Extremis may be developed based off of Might.
Interlude: Father Vincent
Father Vincent=A priest of Rabona who leads their Army south following some knowledge bearer's advice and due to the complete lack of good alternatives. He hopes he is not making a mistake, and knows the cost of even his best move may be quite high. He appears to be becoming a Yoma.
Rafaela (discharged #2)=Blind Sentinel=A Warrior who was removed from the ranks long ago. She is the sister of Luciela who awakened and became the Abysmal one of the South. She appears to know Father Vincent, and joins his army for personal reasons. She has promised to kill him if he loses control.
Chapter 17:
Neptune Verilius=Grandfather of the Cleansing Hand whose theories about the infectious nature of Yoma and preventative measures were ignored until after his death. He spent a number of "dark" years where no one knows what he did before reappearing with his theory, and only gained a small following in the North.
Saint Naomi=One of the earliest Saints and supposedly took in the Heretic as a protegy. She was also mentioned in the interlude as one of the few with the capability to discern yoma even when they're in disguise.
Chapter 18:
Saint Henry=rumored to either be The Heretic or have been killed by him.
Raphael=Instituted the Code of Safe Passage to protect refugees who were involved in yoma attacks and wish to resettle in Saintshold. Most likely a saint.
Father Damien = Instituted the Code of Safe Passage to protect refugees who were involved in yoma attacks and wish to resettle in Saintshold. A Father in the Rabonian church, bu who was also mentioned in the first Interlude as one of the few who could detect Yoma, which suggests he also has powers.
Chapter 19
Tom=Member of the Valkyrie Company who can fly. He questions what Erin is doing with Clare and Ophelia in the South instead of heading back home.
Lyta=Saint who can apparently detect Yoma, but she says she is still in training. Based on her usage of her power she likely uses some form of body temperature classification.
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Ilena=former number 1 demoted to number 2 and now running around with a bunch of awakened beings. She claims to have awakened and then returned back to full Claymore form as evidenced by her retaining the white hair and silver eyes. She claims to have lost her sword and enjoys using Clares to intimidate her and Ophelia, but ultimately says it belongs with Clare. Wanted to capture and give Rafaela to Luciela.
Interlude: Rafaela
Bishop Kamuri = Convinced Rafaela to leave her cave. She left but only to train. Her "good deeds" and legend as the Blind Sentinel apparently were an accident that later happened.
Father Rodo = believes Rabona herself gives powers. Appears to have known Rafaela.
Chapter 22
Sebastian = The hairy awakened being with oversized arms that can fire air blasts. He made his debut attacking them in chapter 18.
Interlude: Lilith
Lilith Bainwright = One of Rafaela's two helpers. A "god-touched" member of the Red Hand who seems to take joy in chaos and scale of the battle around her. She has a power letting her lighten or increase things around her, although, it becomes harder the farther they are from her and she requires at least line of sight. She helps the Enormous construct Diane's power generates fight.
Diane = The "god-touched" with an ability to create small and weak life-forms which evolve and increase in size and strength based upon the amount of death, destruction and conflict around it. She uses the violence of the Human Army fighting the Awakened army to generate a colossal lifeform many times the size of the other Awakened there. It appears to eat or scare off the other Awakened and then make it's way towards the Luciela vs Rafaela fight.
Chapter 24:
Galatea (#4) = A warrior who has exceptional youki sensing ability and a long range making her the "eye" of the Organization. Her replacement, however, is almost complete causing her to begin to look for outside options to escape. She appears to have some sort of Archer power that lets her disguise herself as animals or plants. Under such a disguise she can perform her youki technique to disrupt enemy movements.
#1 and #2 = Twin warriors who seem almost like empty, expressionless dolls. They appear to have danger levels comparable to Abyssal class. Even holding back they can easily handle 4 Awakened Beings without a scratch.
Chapter 26:
Europa Avignon = High Ranking Awakened Being who is incredibly lazy and yet trusted by Riful to act as one of the gate guards. She has a technique allowing her to feign death, and is seen as the only shot Lyta has of escaping until she meets Raki and Priscilla.
White Faction and Blue Faction = Two groups of "god-touched," awakened beings and possibly even Claymore or yoma that drill together in heterogeneous groups under Riful's direction. They each faction is kept somewhat separated from the other factions and with a mix of powered humans and Awakened beings to prevent a large uprising.
Chapter 27:
Raki Sand = Human companion of Priscilla, who somehow possesses some of her affections. Naive or just suicidal?
Priscilla (former #1) = Awakened and then disappeared until she showed up hanging around Raki for months after being nursed back to health. Appears to want to follow him and is treated like a child by Raki who doesn't appear aware of her true nature.
Zaki Sand = killed in Riful and Dauf interlude. Had a potent master power, and Riful was particularly annoyed at killing him. Appears to have been manipulated by some other power or group.
Rose = Awakened Being who worked with Zaki in the Riful and Dauf interlude and concocted a failed coup scheme.
Mimir = Someone with a power to detect lifeforms in a wide radius, but it has difficulty distinguishing between humans and sufficiently large or numerous animals.
Gargoyle constructs = Created by someone and used as border guards by Riful to separate the various factions. They appear to have enough sentience and autonomy to be bribed.
Interlude: The little game and the great game
Teresa = appears to be holding back from interfering in some way to avoid merging with Clare that she feels will cause Clare to merely become her shadow. She is encouraged by some other warrior in the dreamlike world they meet in to take a more active role.
Paul Mercott, Fredrica Mercott, Johansson Mercott = Three humans trapped in the first floor of Riful's basement that the protagonists explore. They are abandoned as they appear to have no way of freeing them and don't want to loose any time. They were being held hostage against Greta Mercott
The following were freed by Lyta, Erin, Raki and Priscilla from Rifulk$ dungeon.
Deirdre Pacific = Rabona ties?
Diane Wine = Isley ties (mentioned in Isley interlude)
Leticia Wine = Isley ties (mentioned in Isley interlude)
Naomi Xa = mainland ties?
Flora Noe = Organization warrior
Astrid Mathilde = Ties to "The Phantoms."
Wave Crawbert = Righteous saint?
Orion Salem = useless human.
"Clare" = Looks like Clare, smells like Clare, doesn't dress like Clare, but apparently knows and hates Priscilla. She has strangely good self-control, and has said to Erinyes that she's not the Clare of this place.
The world of Claymore is set on an island/small continent. It is roughly cross shaped and is traditionally divided into five sections.
Northern section: Alphonse
- Said to be the land where Isley a former number 1 lives.
- The coldest quadrant, with few settlements farther north than Pieta.
- Dabi a town in Alphonse where Lilith is from.
Western Section: Lautrec
- Said to be the land where Riful a former number 1 lives.
Southern Section: Mucha
- Said to be the land where Luciela a former number 1 lives.
- A fertile land with many grasslands. The Slovanská Mountains are centers for mining of copper and tin.
- Doga is the village where Raki is from. This part of Mucha is a more desert like climate.
- Egon is another village in Mucha, and was destroyed by Luciela at some point in the past.
Eastern Section: Sutare
- A barren desert land where the Organization's headquarters, called Staff, exists.
Central Section: Toulouse
- This is the area traditionally overseen by the highest ranking warriors (#1, #2, #3 among others) of the Organization which allows them to more quickly respond to threats.
- The largest and most influential city in this region is Rabona, the site of the Rabona church. While in many outlying regions the "pagan" goddesses Teresa, Clare and others are more respected in Toulouse Rabonian is the dominant religion.
- A New City, Saintshold, is being built by the Saints Order in collaboration with the Scholar's Guild. It is a far more technocratic city than any other on the continent with central planning organized for the sake of maximizing efficiency and safety. It is about 15 km North of Rabona, and has a nickname of "The Navel of the World," which likely alludes to both it being in the center of the new economy and the 'navel-gazing' of its planners.
-Lille, a city/small peninsula at the northeast edge of Toulouse. It is the historically a neutral city-state that did not belong to any of the 5 ancient kingdoms. It was once used as a neutral meeting ground for affairs of state and still proudly boasts some of the finest architecture on the continent. However, it is a shadow of its former self.
The Outer world exists outside of this island continent. It is not publicly known to exist, but some high ranking members of the Organization know that they are no more than a scientific branch of the larger Alliance of human nations on other continents.
Northern section: Alphonse
- Said to be the land where Isley a former number 1 lives.
- The coldest quadrant, with few settlements farther north than Pieta.
- Dabi a town in Alphonse where Lilith is from.
Western Section: Lautrec
- Said to be the land where Riful a former number 1 lives.
Southern Section: Mucha
- Said to be the land where Luciela a former number 1 lives.
- A fertile land with many grasslands. The Slovanská Mountains are centers for mining of copper and tin.
- Doga is the village where Raki is from. This part of Mucha is a more desert like climate.
- Egon is another village in Mucha, and was destroyed by Luciela at some point in the past.
Eastern Section: Sutare
- A barren desert land where the Organization's headquarters, called Staff, exists.
Central Section: Toulouse
- This is the area traditionally overseen by the highest ranking warriors (#1, #2, #3 among others) of the Organization which allows them to more quickly respond to threats.
- The largest and most influential city in this region is Rabona, the site of the Rabona church. While in many outlying regions the "pagan" goddesses Teresa, Clare and others are more respected in Toulouse Rabonian is the dominant religion.
- A New City, Saintshold, is being built by the Saints Order in collaboration with the Scholar's Guild. It is a far more technocratic city than any other on the continent with central planning organized for the sake of maximizing efficiency and safety. It is about 15 km North of Rabona, and has a nickname of "The Navel of the World," which likely alludes to both it being in the center of the new economy and the 'navel-gazing' of its planners.
-Lille, a city/small peninsula at the northeast edge of Toulouse. It is the historically a neutral city-state that did not belong to any of the 5 ancient kingdoms. It was once used as a neutral meeting ground for affairs of state and still proudly boasts some of the finest architecture on the continent. However, it is a shadow of its former self.
The Outer world exists outside of this island continent. It is not publicly known to exist, but some high ranking members of the Organization know that they are no more than a scientific branch of the larger Alliance of human nations on other continents.
Yoma = These shapeshifters eat human flesh and can disguise themselves as people they've killed according to rumor can even use the memories of the deceased to further their disguise. They have superhuman speed and strength along with the ability to stretch their bodies and stab things from afar. Rare types include flying Yoma and elder Yoma, which can be larger and stronger. According to rumor they may not be more closely related to a plague or curse then a predator, and those who eat Yoma flesh always become a Yoma.
Warriors (aka Claymores to the general population because of the giant swords they use) = Humans who have been implanted with yoma flesh and blood. They can sense the energy of youmas that flows in themselves, Yoma and Awakened Beings. They also are superhumanly strong, and fast which allows them to wield their giant claymores. Properly trained warriors generally do not seem to have much trouble fighting Yoma even in large numbers.
Color-heads=An insulting term for warriors who went through a failed hybridization process. Their hair only loses some color and they are generally weaker, slower and less useful than true warriors. In the past most of these would have been disposed of early on or killed by the deadly final exams. Because of this the general population is not aware of this subgroup of Claymores. Recently due to a shrinking budget the more loyal are being recycled into non-combat positions such as assistants, spies or trainers.
Awakened Beings (aka Voracious Eaters to the general population who believe these are an evolution of elder yomas) = These can take a variety of forms and sizes. They generally have a human form that looks fully human even in hair color, and an awakened form that ranges from several meters tall to 50 meters. Their regenerative abilities are strong enough that only beheading or destroying their heads can reliably kill an awakened being.
Dragon-kin (aka Descendents of dragons) = These beings exist only in the outer world and are the enemies of the empire and alliance of human kingdoms. They have two stages--an immature form that is several feet tall and humanoid, and a mature, giant form that is more reptilian and dozens of meters tall. They may have some connection to the two forms awakened beings can take. See this wiki page for more info or pics.
Warriors (aka Claymores to the general population because of the giant swords they use) = Humans who have been implanted with yoma flesh and blood. They can sense the energy of youmas that flows in themselves, Yoma and Awakened Beings. They also are superhumanly strong, and fast which allows them to wield their giant claymores. Properly trained warriors generally do not seem to have much trouble fighting Yoma even in large numbers.
Color-heads=An insulting term for warriors who went through a failed hybridization process. Their hair only loses some color and they are generally weaker, slower and less useful than true warriors. In the past most of these would have been disposed of early on or killed by the deadly final exams. Because of this the general population is not aware of this subgroup of Claymores. Recently due to a shrinking budget the more loyal are being recycled into non-combat positions such as assistants, spies or trainers.
Awakened Beings (aka Voracious Eaters to the general population who believe these are an evolution of elder yomas) = These can take a variety of forms and sizes. They generally have a human form that looks fully human even in hair color, and an awakened form that ranges from several meters tall to 50 meters. Their regenerative abilities are strong enough that only beheading or destroying their heads can reliably kill an awakened being.
Dragon-kin (aka Descendents of dragons) = These beings exist only in the outer world and are the enemies of the empire and alliance of human kingdoms. They have two stages--an immature form that is several feet tall and humanoid, and a mature, giant form that is more reptilian and dozens of meters tall. They may have some connection to the two forms awakened beings can take. See this wiki page for more info or pics.
There is no exact timing given to these events in the Claymore story, but it helps me when I brainstorm to think of actual dates being attached to them. Thus, you have below my (subject to modification because I don't know canon well enough to know if this is all going to smoothly jibe) timeline of events indexed by biggest historical event in these unnamed Isles--the fall of the Five Kingdoms.
- On the mainland continent war breaks out. -13 FFF
- The war drags in other countries until two alliances ultimately exist. The dragon-kin/descendents of dragons and the future-Organization's side. -12 FFF
- Organization begins Askaram flesh experiments. Decides they are too dangerous to be conducted anywhere nearby. Finds an isolated island/small continent that can be quarantined and used for research. -10 FFF
- Roughly the first appearance of Yoma: -1 FFF
- Fall of the Five Kingdoms: 0 FFF
- "1st Generation" of Claymores/Warriors appear: 1 FFF
- 2nd Generation: 1.5 FFF
- Soul Link Test disaster that leads to the Awakening of Luciela of the South: 34 FFF
- Hysteria the Elegant Becomes #1: 45 FFF
- Powers begin appearing: 46 FFF
- Rosemary becomes #1 after the massacre at Rockwell Hill: 49 FFF
- Ilena becomes #1 after Rosemary sends her black card to Teresa: 50FFF
- Teresa goes rogue and is executed by a team of Ilena, Priscilla, Sophia and Hailey: 53FFF
- Clare becomes a trainee: 53.25 FFF
- Elda and the Cleansing Hand clash resulting in the Briar Wall cutting off the south: 53.75 FFF
- Clare, Jacklyn, Elise and Evelyn fight the Cleansing Hand in Crannog to save their handler Morel. 56 FFF
- Priscilla is sent to the South and somehow awakens: 56.25 FFF
- Clare is invited to become test subject 2 in Project Gepetto: 57 FFF
- Clare becomes a warrior #32 and taken on her first hunt by Ophelia: 57.5 FFF
Note: A "generation" of warriors is similar to a cohort who were trained together. The speed at which the organization turned over cohorts I'm going to assume was very slow at first and then sped up as they became more skilled, better funded, and more desperate to get their super weapon under control. This would explain how in canon Teresa is in generation 77 and Clare is in generation 150.
- On the mainland continent war breaks out. -13 FFF
- The war drags in other countries until two alliances ultimately exist. The dragon-kin/descendents of dragons and the future-Organization's side. -12 FFF
- Organization begins Askaram flesh experiments. Decides they are too dangerous to be conducted anywhere nearby. Finds an isolated island/small continent that can be quarantined and used for research. -10 FFF
- Roughly the first appearance of Yoma: -1 FFF
- Fall of the Five Kingdoms: 0 FFF
- "1st Generation" of Claymores/Warriors appear: 1 FFF
- 2nd Generation: 1.5 FFF
- Soul Link Test disaster that leads to the Awakening of Luciela of the South: 34 FFF
- Hysteria the Elegant Becomes #1: 45 FFF
- Powers begin appearing: 46 FFF
- Rosemary becomes #1 after the massacre at Rockwell Hill: 49 FFF
- Ilena becomes #1 after Rosemary sends her black card to Teresa: 50FFF
- Teresa goes rogue and is executed by a team of Ilena, Priscilla, Sophia and Hailey: 53FFF
- Clare becomes a trainee: 53.25 FFF
- Elda and the Cleansing Hand clash resulting in the Briar Wall cutting off the south: 53.75 FFF
- Clare, Jacklyn, Elise and Evelyn fight the Cleansing Hand in Crannog to save their handler Morel. 56 FFF
- Priscilla is sent to the South and somehow awakens: 56.25 FFF
- Clare is invited to become test subject 2 in Project Gepetto: 57 FFF
- Clare becomes a warrior #32 and taken on her first hunt by Ophelia: 57.5 FFF
Note: A "generation" of warriors is similar to a cohort who were trained together. The speed at which the organization turned over cohorts I'm going to assume was very slow at first and then sped up as they became more skilled, better funded, and more desperate to get their super weapon under control. This would explain how in canon Teresa is in generation 77 and Clare is in generation 150.
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Chapter 1: Pearls
- Location
- CA
Chapter 1: Pearls
At first they attempted to get me to cooperate with sweet older children asking me to join them. Then came adults to scold or encourage me. Finally, ultimatums with small bribes. None of them moved me.
I hated them.
After that, I joined a new group. This time I starved and struggled to survive. They did everything they could to force me draw on my abilities.
I think I disappointed them.
I had no useful ability to use. The only thing noteworthy was my skill with a staff they gave me. The stances and postures all came to me like it was second nature. Then my mind thought up a thousand ways I was doing it all wrong and could improve.
I survived. I had no time to remember, and a part of me eagerly threw myself into the jaws of each new torture. Another part hated them more and more with each passing day. But they didn't care. As I proved my worthlessness they grew more careless about my survival.
I think they were waiting for me to break. My body broke first.
When I awoke from the second worst agony I had ever felt I was no longer in the pits. I was also missing a hand.
They concluded my only ability was a gift for supernatural skill for using weapons. After I healed I was transferred to a new torture.
They began to implant and transform me just as Teresa had been. The Organization is feared and yet respected since for generations it has helped fight the Yoma.
To fight them they create hybrids implanted with Yoma flesh and blood. Faster, stronger and with senses that let them find the Yoma who hide under disguises and prey us.
The surgery was like being covered in burning coals and then torn open by beasts before having every wound salted. I accepted it, and I tried not to cry. Crying only made the tormentors happier.
I heard them whisper at night about us. They gambled but did not drink. The weakened ones like me and Deirdre held the longest odds. They had let me heal from my injuries but I was still too skinny and light. With only one usable arm, even with my skill, I suspected they did not care much if I lived or died.
Despite the difficulty it was infinitely more bearable. Here at least I saw a purpose. I would become stronger, and I would become closer to Teresa. Some of the other children cried or attempted to escape. They wound up the same as me no matter what. Their weakness disgusted me.
On the three worst days, I could not even manage to keep food down and yet was parched and ached with thirst. It may have been the dizziness, but I got a sense that I had been here before. That this was not entirely new. At first it was a morbid comfort. Then I vaguely remembered feeling like this for seven days and nights. Each day the thirst grew and each night it abated as I used my humanity. My clenching fist drew blood and in desperation I even drank from the weaker girls there.
I had lived through that? No, it wasn't me. I was not that strong or hardened, yet. A cold voice inside whispered if I experienced that I would have died. I defied it. I could withstand anything. I would withstand this.
Amidst bone deep weariness, I felt a stupid kind of disappointment when my suffering peaked and diminished after three days. My body seemed to signal I was too shallow and weak to have withstood more. I could not even muster myself to deny it. I disgusted myself.
After many days or perhaps weeks (I could not tell), the hard part was over. My hair was still brown, which puzzled me. They told us it would fall out soon and then grow back as white as snow.
Our eyes had begun to change. But left and right the participants in the hybridization process had vanished. They were the ones who had been sickest. They did not return.
When our eyes turned pure silver we left those halls. There were only four of us left. Me, Jacklyn, Selene, and Aimee. As we left I watched a new batch of girls file into the den. They weighed more than us and outnumbered us seven to one. Yet, when they saw us they shrank away from us. I saw the weakness in their faces. We terrified them.
***
We then became trainees. The young woman who taught us held the silver-hair of hybrids but with a stripe of burnished gold color. It was beautiful, but she glared at any of us who started too long.
We learned to handle our youki. To chain it first and then to channel bits of it. We learned to lie. To lie with our tongues, faces and bodies. Then we learned to fight.
The day we moved from drills to spears a girl with a short bowl hair cut tried to partner with me. She sneered at me and called me a useless cripple before trying to put me in my place--beneath her heel.
It did not go well for her. Even with one hand, I hand done these drills a fifty times more than she had. I had fought spars like this a hundred times over. I had lost a hand to a pack of three prairie hyenas. They had all lost their lives.
I put her arrogant ass in the dirt four times before my stamina began flagging. She was bigger and more muscular than me, so as the period began to end she figured out how to put it to use as my stamina gave out. Still I gave twice as good as I got.
I waited to see her new weakness. Not arrogance. She had accepted that. I expected resentment, and with a trace of despair, but perhaps my falls at the end were enough. She congratulated me for my skill. Her weakness was now her body. Her strength that had let her crack me open would be leaned on even more heavily.
"Thank you. You also managed to outlast me. Be careful to not rely too much on your strength. Your footwork also was too static. It didn't fully leverage or brace against force." I said.
Her smile grew brittle. She left me feeling confused.
In the coming weeks I grew a reputation--for mediocrity. Those with useful powers made one group. Whether it was sensing danger to a bodypart, manipulating morale, or changing into a liquid, impervious form they had an edge. It made a difference.
On the other hand, trainees without powers needed to rely on their raw strength and speed since we were still pretty close in terms of skill.
I could down almost anyone without powers until my stamina gave out. I was working on that, but it was slow to progress.
For those with powers it was the opposite. I could see issues with how they used their abilities, but I refused to exploit them. Anything, which would work on the enemy in front of me, but not her I refused to rely on. I was generally defeated, but not easily. It put me near the middle of the pack.
After a hard match fighting from the extreme outside, I found myself on the ground. I was out of breath. I had lost.
Jacklyn only needed the lightest of scrapes from her blade and she could have you break out in laughter. For others it would be a giggle that jiggled their sword arm. For me it was peels of laughter as I watched the funniest moments of Jacklyn's childhood. It was distracting and lethal.
I wanted to ask for her to spar with me outside of class. I needed to build up more of a resistance like my peers. That was the only reason I asked her. She begged off. I don't think she liked fighting me, or maybe fighting in general.
The instructor, Auburn, came up to me.
"You're falling behind, Clare. You used to be able to beat me the first several times matches no matter what. You've got more stamina, but the matches are also lasting longer, and the skill gap has been shrinking."
I grimaced. It was nothing I didn't already know.
"With just arm you'll have to be a speed fighter, but you're not fighting like one. You may have skills, but they're more suited to a fighter with greater strength."
Then she smirked, and pounded me on the back.
"I'm putting you with the older years for the next week. They're learning about defensive types. If you're lucky you might get that hand back by the end of the year." She said.
I stared after her as she left and then collapsed back to look at the drab stone roof. I refused to hope.
***
That night I saw Teresa in my dreams. She spoke to me but I could not hear anything. She was younger, just a few years older than me. Her hair held back in a single ponytail and in her hands a lifetimes worth of riches. They looked like pearls but shimmered with every color human eyes could see and some that only silver eyes perceived. She was concealing it above her bosom. I watched her dodge men in black uniforms to escape out to a forest and a cave at noon. It was the hottest time of day and training would have been nearly insufferable.
She would sift through them carefully, pop one into her mouth, close her eyes and then lay back in bliss. She dreamed within my dream. I couldn't see her dreams but her smile was radiant and contained no weakness. It brought a faint smile, like an echo of her own, to my lips.
I opened my eyes to darkness. When I awakened each morning I remembered a bit more. The harder I fought during the day the deeper I'd sleep and the more I'd recall. I picked up the practice sword we'd recently received and began to work out the stiffness in my muscles. By the time everyone else had awoke, I had a light sheen of condensation--not sweat, condensation.
Omake: Claymores
Excerpts from the philosophical training stage of a warrior.
The warriors are not just humanities only line of defense against the Yoma, but also the greatest danger to humanity. You will be hated and reviled by everyone. They call you out there Claymores not warriors. You are mere tools and weapons to them.
They are right to fear you and you must fear yourself. Youki, the energy of Yoma beings perverts and distorts all life. It is addictive and deceptive. The more you use it the harder it becomes to stop using it. If you go too far, use too much of your youki power, then you'll find it impossible to halt your slide down the slippery slope to being consumed by the youki within you. It will consume you and the larvae within you will emerge from your husk as the anathema of everything you are. The first to be consumed and sweetest will be those closest to you.
Each day you use youki you feed that larvae a little more. Each deep draw on its strength generates microfractures in the gate that seals your youki. One day you will no longer be able to fight back. On that day, you will perform the greatest deed of your entire career as a warrior and guardian of mankind. You will protect mankind from yourself.
Yoma prey on humans, warriors prey on Yoma and Awakened Beings prey on all of the above.
At first they attempted to get me to cooperate with sweet older children asking me to join them. Then came adults to scold or encourage me. Finally, ultimatums with small bribes. None of them moved me.
I hated them.
After that, I joined a new group. This time I starved and struggled to survive. They did everything they could to force me draw on my abilities.
I think I disappointed them.
I had no useful ability to use. The only thing noteworthy was my skill with a staff they gave me. The stances and postures all came to me like it was second nature. Then my mind thought up a thousand ways I was doing it all wrong and could improve.
I survived. I had no time to remember, and a part of me eagerly threw myself into the jaws of each new torture. Another part hated them more and more with each passing day. But they didn't care. As I proved my worthlessness they grew more careless about my survival.
I think they were waiting for me to break. My body broke first.
When I awoke from the second worst agony I had ever felt I was no longer in the pits. I was also missing a hand.
They concluded my only ability was a gift for supernatural skill for using weapons. After I healed I was transferred to a new torture.
They began to implant and transform me just as Teresa had been. The Organization is feared and yet respected since for generations it has helped fight the Yoma.
To fight them they create hybrids implanted with Yoma flesh and blood. Faster, stronger and with senses that let them find the Yoma who hide under disguises and prey us.
The surgery was like being covered in burning coals and then torn open by beasts before having every wound salted. I accepted it, and I tried not to cry. Crying only made the tormentors happier.
I heard them whisper at night about us. They gambled but did not drink. The weakened ones like me and Deirdre held the longest odds. They had let me heal from my injuries but I was still too skinny and light. With only one usable arm, even with my skill, I suspected they did not care much if I lived or died.
Despite the difficulty it was infinitely more bearable. Here at least I saw a purpose. I would become stronger, and I would become closer to Teresa. Some of the other children cried or attempted to escape. They wound up the same as me no matter what. Their weakness disgusted me.
On the three worst days, I could not even manage to keep food down and yet was parched and ached with thirst. It may have been the dizziness, but I got a sense that I had been here before. That this was not entirely new. At first it was a morbid comfort. Then I vaguely remembered feeling like this for seven days and nights. Each day the thirst grew and each night it abated as I used my humanity. My clenching fist drew blood and in desperation I even drank from the weaker girls there.
I had lived through that? No, it wasn't me. I was not that strong or hardened, yet. A cold voice inside whispered if I experienced that I would have died. I defied it. I could withstand anything. I would withstand this.
Amidst bone deep weariness, I felt a stupid kind of disappointment when my suffering peaked and diminished after three days. My body seemed to signal I was too shallow and weak to have withstood more. I could not even muster myself to deny it. I disgusted myself.
After many days or perhaps weeks (I could not tell), the hard part was over. My hair was still brown, which puzzled me. They told us it would fall out soon and then grow back as white as snow.
Our eyes had begun to change. But left and right the participants in the hybridization process had vanished. They were the ones who had been sickest. They did not return.
When our eyes turned pure silver we left those halls. There were only four of us left. Me, Jacklyn, Selene, and Aimee. As we left I watched a new batch of girls file into the den. They weighed more than us and outnumbered us seven to one. Yet, when they saw us they shrank away from us. I saw the weakness in their faces. We terrified them.
***
We then became trainees. The young woman who taught us held the silver-hair of hybrids but with a stripe of burnished gold color. It was beautiful, but she glared at any of us who started too long.
We learned to handle our youki. To chain it first and then to channel bits of it. We learned to lie. To lie with our tongues, faces and bodies. Then we learned to fight.
The day we moved from drills to spears a girl with a short bowl hair cut tried to partner with me. She sneered at me and called me a useless cripple before trying to put me in my place--beneath her heel.
It did not go well for her. Even with one hand, I hand done these drills a fifty times more than she had. I had fought spars like this a hundred times over. I had lost a hand to a pack of three prairie hyenas. They had all lost their lives.
I put her arrogant ass in the dirt four times before my stamina began flagging. She was bigger and more muscular than me, so as the period began to end she figured out how to put it to use as my stamina gave out. Still I gave twice as good as I got.
I waited to see her new weakness. Not arrogance. She had accepted that. I expected resentment, and with a trace of despair, but perhaps my falls at the end were enough. She congratulated me for my skill. Her weakness was now her body. Her strength that had let her crack me open would be leaned on even more heavily.
"Thank you. You also managed to outlast me. Be careful to not rely too much on your strength. Your footwork also was too static. It didn't fully leverage or brace against force." I said.
Her smile grew brittle. She left me feeling confused.
In the coming weeks I grew a reputation--for mediocrity. Those with useful powers made one group. Whether it was sensing danger to a bodypart, manipulating morale, or changing into a liquid, impervious form they had an edge. It made a difference.
On the other hand, trainees without powers needed to rely on their raw strength and speed since we were still pretty close in terms of skill.
I could down almost anyone without powers until my stamina gave out. I was working on that, but it was slow to progress.
For those with powers it was the opposite. I could see issues with how they used their abilities, but I refused to exploit them. Anything, which would work on the enemy in front of me, but not her I refused to rely on. I was generally defeated, but not easily. It put me near the middle of the pack.
After a hard match fighting from the extreme outside, I found myself on the ground. I was out of breath. I had lost.
Jacklyn only needed the lightest of scrapes from her blade and she could have you break out in laughter. For others it would be a giggle that jiggled their sword arm. For me it was peels of laughter as I watched the funniest moments of Jacklyn's childhood. It was distracting and lethal.
I wanted to ask for her to spar with me outside of class. I needed to build up more of a resistance like my peers. That was the only reason I asked her. She begged off. I don't think she liked fighting me, or maybe fighting in general.
The instructor, Auburn, came up to me.
"You're falling behind, Clare. You used to be able to beat me the first several times matches no matter what. You've got more stamina, but the matches are also lasting longer, and the skill gap has been shrinking."
I grimaced. It was nothing I didn't already know.
"With just arm you'll have to be a speed fighter, but you're not fighting like one. You may have skills, but they're more suited to a fighter with greater strength."
Then she smirked, and pounded me on the back.
"I'm putting you with the older years for the next week. They're learning about defensive types. If you're lucky you might get that hand back by the end of the year." She said.
I stared after her as she left and then collapsed back to look at the drab stone roof. I refused to hope.
***
That night I saw Teresa in my dreams. She spoke to me but I could not hear anything. She was younger, just a few years older than me. Her hair held back in a single ponytail and in her hands a lifetimes worth of riches. They looked like pearls but shimmered with every color human eyes could see and some that only silver eyes perceived. She was concealing it above her bosom. I watched her dodge men in black uniforms to escape out to a forest and a cave at noon. It was the hottest time of day and training would have been nearly insufferable.
She would sift through them carefully, pop one into her mouth, close her eyes and then lay back in bliss. She dreamed within my dream. I couldn't see her dreams but her smile was radiant and contained no weakness. It brought a faint smile, like an echo of her own, to my lips.
I opened my eyes to darkness. When I awakened each morning I remembered a bit more. The harder I fought during the day the deeper I'd sleep and the more I'd recall. I picked up the practice sword we'd recently received and began to work out the stiffness in my muscles. By the time everyone else had awoke, I had a light sheen of condensation--not sweat, condensation.
«***»
Omake: Claymores
Excerpts from the philosophical training stage of a warrior.
The warriors are not just humanities only line of defense against the Yoma, but also the greatest danger to humanity. You will be hated and reviled by everyone. They call you out there Claymores not warriors. You are mere tools and weapons to them.
They are right to fear you and you must fear yourself. Youki, the energy of Yoma beings perverts and distorts all life. It is addictive and deceptive. The more you use it the harder it becomes to stop using it. If you go too far, use too much of your youki power, then you'll find it impossible to halt your slide down the slippery slope to being consumed by the youki within you. It will consume you and the larvae within you will emerge from your husk as the anathema of everything you are. The first to be consumed and sweetest will be those closest to you.
Each day you use youki you feed that larvae a little more. Each deep draw on its strength generates microfractures in the gate that seals your youki. One day you will no longer be able to fight back. On that day, you will perform the greatest deed of your entire career as a warrior and guardian of mankind. You will protect mankind from yourself.
Yoma prey on humans, warriors prey on Yoma and Awakened Beings prey on all of the above.
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Chapter 2: The Scar
- Location
- CA
Chapter 2: The Scar
"The energy of youma, youki, can be directed to either regeneration or reinforcement of the body. Just as a warrior's reinforcement can differ with some getting a lot of speed and a little boost to strength or vice versa, there are also different types of regeneration with some warriors finding themselves better or worse at certain types.
"Regenerating from deep wounds such as a crushed liver and spleen is more about putting the broken pieces back together again. Every warrior is capable of this, but stronger ones will be able to do this faster, and with a lower cost in terms of Youki and physical stamina."
"A much more difficult aspect of regeneration is regenerating lost parts. If you lose a hand, for instance," Said Chloe, looking at me. "You can't just put pieces back together. You need a very crisp, clear image of the flesh you want and then you need to convert Youki into mass and reconstitute through stimulating the surrounding tissues. This takes not just control but a flexible form and body. Warriors whose bodies are optimized for maximum quality output are often too rigid to easily reconstitute pieces of themselves except of vastly inferior quality."
"This is not a criticism of their ability. Many of the best single digit warriors in the organization are of this type, and it is precisely because their forms are superior in terms of strength, speed and dexterity that they have less need to regenerate."
"We break warriors up into two categories: offensive, those with rigid quality based forms, and defensive, who have more flexibility physiologies and can more easily pull off techniques based on quantity."
"These are only rough approximations, though, and there exist plenty of examples of warriors with the capability of drastic body modifications and not limb regeneration such as the former number 1 Roxanne of Love and Hate. Now enter the meditation posture and-what is it?"
A trainee shyly raising her hand put it down. "Yoma can regenerate limbs and extend body parts easily. Does that make them defensive fighters?"
"Yes, and no. When yoma fight they use 100% of their power. When they do this their bodies become far more fluid just as yours would if you were so foolish as to be fully consumed by it. Purely thanks to that I would expect them to be able to perform youki to matter conversion and extreme body transformations."
"That said, Yoma also have far less strength, speed and dexterity compared to a warrior. While some especially old or large ones can match the weakest warriors who number in the high thirties and above, generally they fight by guile, stealth and with superior numbers. This to me sounds like a defensive fighting method." She said arrogantly. There was an ego there, no, an inferiority complex.
"Anyway, focus on your energy and attempt to sense when I come up to cut you. Don't use your ears." I follow her instructions. Those who are slow are smacked.
"When I cut you do not focus on knitting your flesh. Focus instead upon just bringing about 20% of your youki to the wound and holding it there. Do not do anything else."
When my turn comes I sense her power only after she has cut me. It is disappointing, but I am young enough I do not feel any urgency from this.
I dip inside the pot within me. It is like a tube running down the center of my body with a bulge at my navel, and vines spreading out from the tube into the rest of me. Burning coals and chill water that bites flows through it. A drop of sweat falls near my wound before steaming as a little over 20% of my power flows to my cut forearm.
"Clare. You're using too much. Samantha increase it by 20%. Adrianne yours is fluctuating too much and keep it close to the wound."
I know. I'm trying. Over 30 seconds I manage to decrease my flow by about 5%. It's not exactly but close enough.
Chloe examines each of our wounds. She prods mine slightly when it is my turn before moving on.
"Alright. Now I want you to visualize the flesh back to how it was before, but try to imagine the flesh being steeped in this power. It should bubble out from within the wound and fill in the gaps. The energy of youki is chaotic. Don't resist it. Just let it flow and if it's flowing out then let it just keep pumping youki to it from deep below the injury."
We moved on. A couple of trainees began to feel exhausted as we reached the twenty minutes mark. One had lightly tipped colored hair and the other was like me, younger than the others, and pushed into this class early. I did not have any trouble maintaining the flow, but keeping it steady and controlled was a struggle. I needed to make constant adjustments.
Finally, she pronounced the exercise over. Those of us whose wound had not fully healed yet used the older healing method we'd first learned--repairing the damage by using youki to knit and seal the cut from both sides of the wound.
"Alright. Based on my evaluation the following trainees have some talent in regrowing flesh and blood. This may eventually extend to remaking full strength limbs."
She began to list off names. It was longer than I expected, about 60% of us. "...Samantha and Zara." She said.
My name was not called. I was an offensive type. I would not be able to regrow my hand. When we left, I headed back to rejoin my peers for strength and endurance training. I reopened the cut and added new ones. Then I quickly left before anyone could confront me about the blood tinged imprint of my fist on the wall.
***
I got punished. We had been given a new test. We were to sit within a room and obey every order given to us by a man in black. The orders were often simple, but sometimes humiliating.
The worst was when they commanded us to hurt each other. They did not do so in front of each other, but told me to cut a wound deep enough to scar into the person in the next room. I was also to not say a thing when I did so.
It was Selene. Someone from the same cohort of survivors from being experimented upon. She was the closest person to me. Her eyes were confused, but relieved when she saw me. They wanted me to scar her.
I did it. It was easy. Over before she knew it. A look of shock and blood that rose a foot and almost splattered me if I did not take a half-step back.
I slept that night alone. She did not return to our room. I hated them/myself/everyone. The next day I entered the room and was cut myself. I leaned into it.
I shook my head and dropped my sword. My mind whispered to me how vulnerable I was now. How this was a test. How their belief in my loyalty would be an opening I could exploit. I saw it then. The reason for the test. My place and how I could feign weakness. Become their instrument in name only. But...
I was. Not. A. Toy.
I raised the blade and cut myself. Deep enough to scar. Upon my mutilated arm. What was one more defilement.
I left the room and entered this one. An isolation chamber. No light, no sound, no treatment for my wounds except my own youki.
I dropped into a cross-legged pose. My hands upon my knees. My eye pointed inward. There was plenty to do.
"The energy of youma, youki, can be directed to either regeneration or reinforcement of the body. Just as a warrior's reinforcement can differ with some getting a lot of speed and a little boost to strength or vice versa, there are also different types of regeneration with some warriors finding themselves better or worse at certain types.
"Regenerating from deep wounds such as a crushed liver and spleen is more about putting the broken pieces back together again. Every warrior is capable of this, but stronger ones will be able to do this faster, and with a lower cost in terms of Youki and physical stamina."
"A much more difficult aspect of regeneration is regenerating lost parts. If you lose a hand, for instance," Said Chloe, looking at me. "You can't just put pieces back together. You need a very crisp, clear image of the flesh you want and then you need to convert Youki into mass and reconstitute through stimulating the surrounding tissues. This takes not just control but a flexible form and body. Warriors whose bodies are optimized for maximum quality output are often too rigid to easily reconstitute pieces of themselves except of vastly inferior quality."
"This is not a criticism of their ability. Many of the best single digit warriors in the organization are of this type, and it is precisely because their forms are superior in terms of strength, speed and dexterity that they have less need to regenerate."
"We break warriors up into two categories: offensive, those with rigid quality based forms, and defensive, who have more flexibility physiologies and can more easily pull off techniques based on quantity."
"These are only rough approximations, though, and there exist plenty of examples of warriors with the capability of drastic body modifications and not limb regeneration such as the former number 1 Roxanne of Love and Hate. Now enter the meditation posture and-what is it?"
A trainee shyly raising her hand put it down. "Yoma can regenerate limbs and extend body parts easily. Does that make them defensive fighters?"
"Yes, and no. When yoma fight they use 100% of their power. When they do this their bodies become far more fluid just as yours would if you were so foolish as to be fully consumed by it. Purely thanks to that I would expect them to be able to perform youki to matter conversion and extreme body transformations."
"That said, Yoma also have far less strength, speed and dexterity compared to a warrior. While some especially old or large ones can match the weakest warriors who number in the high thirties and above, generally they fight by guile, stealth and with superior numbers. This to me sounds like a defensive fighting method." She said arrogantly. There was an ego there, no, an inferiority complex.
"Anyway, focus on your energy and attempt to sense when I come up to cut you. Don't use your ears." I follow her instructions. Those who are slow are smacked.
"When I cut you do not focus on knitting your flesh. Focus instead upon just bringing about 20% of your youki to the wound and holding it there. Do not do anything else."
When my turn comes I sense her power only after she has cut me. It is disappointing, but I am young enough I do not feel any urgency from this.
I dip inside the pot within me. It is like a tube running down the center of my body with a bulge at my navel, and vines spreading out from the tube into the rest of me. Burning coals and chill water that bites flows through it. A drop of sweat falls near my wound before steaming as a little over 20% of my power flows to my cut forearm.
"Clare. You're using too much. Samantha increase it by 20%. Adrianne yours is fluctuating too much and keep it close to the wound."
I know. I'm trying. Over 30 seconds I manage to decrease my flow by about 5%. It's not exactly but close enough.
Chloe examines each of our wounds. She prods mine slightly when it is my turn before moving on.
"Alright. Now I want you to visualize the flesh back to how it was before, but try to imagine the flesh being steeped in this power. It should bubble out from within the wound and fill in the gaps. The energy of youki is chaotic. Don't resist it. Just let it flow and if it's flowing out then let it just keep pumping youki to it from deep below the injury."
We moved on. A couple of trainees began to feel exhausted as we reached the twenty minutes mark. One had lightly tipped colored hair and the other was like me, younger than the others, and pushed into this class early. I did not have any trouble maintaining the flow, but keeping it steady and controlled was a struggle. I needed to make constant adjustments.
Finally, she pronounced the exercise over. Those of us whose wound had not fully healed yet used the older healing method we'd first learned--repairing the damage by using youki to knit and seal the cut from both sides of the wound.
"Alright. Based on my evaluation the following trainees have some talent in regrowing flesh and blood. This may eventually extend to remaking full strength limbs."
She began to list off names. It was longer than I expected, about 60% of us. "...Samantha and Zara." She said.
My name was not called. I was an offensive type. I would not be able to regrow my hand. When we left, I headed back to rejoin my peers for strength and endurance training. I reopened the cut and added new ones. Then I quickly left before anyone could confront me about the blood tinged imprint of my fist on the wall.
***
I got punished. We had been given a new test. We were to sit within a room and obey every order given to us by a man in black. The orders were often simple, but sometimes humiliating.
The worst was when they commanded us to hurt each other. They did not do so in front of each other, but told me to cut a wound deep enough to scar into the person in the next room. I was also to not say a thing when I did so.
It was Selene. Someone from the same cohort of survivors from being experimented upon. She was the closest person to me. Her eyes were confused, but relieved when she saw me. They wanted me to scar her.
I did it. It was easy. Over before she knew it. A look of shock and blood that rose a foot and almost splattered me if I did not take a half-step back.
I slept that night alone. She did not return to our room. I hated them/myself/everyone. The next day I entered the room and was cut myself. I leaned into it.
I shook my head and dropped my sword. My mind whispered to me how vulnerable I was now. How this was a test. How their belief in my loyalty would be an opening I could exploit. I saw it then. The reason for the test. My place and how I could feign weakness. Become their instrument in name only. But...
I was. Not. A. Toy.
I raised the blade and cut myself. Deep enough to scar. Upon my mutilated arm. What was one more defilement.
I left the room and entered this one. An isolation chamber. No light, no sound, no treatment for my wounds except my own youki.
I dropped into a cross-legged pose. My hands upon my knees. My eye pointed inward. There was plenty to do.
Chapter 3: To the Ends of the Earth and Beneath It
- Location
- CA
Chapter 3: To the Ends of the Earth and Beneath It
Physically, I will always be forced to play catch up with everyone else. In terms of powers, I can see the weaknesses, vulnerabilities and faultlines of people around me, and especially myself. Still, I am too weak to exploit these openings. I know my problems but that does not fix them. It is useless right now.
In terms of sensing I am merely average. In terms of control and repressing youki I am slightly above average. The only thing in which I truly excel is skill and speed in learning. It is because of these memories.
I saw the weakness in my foe that day. She longs for death. She welcomes it. But Teresa wasn't strong enough to give it to her.
If I am to surpass Teresa, to become better than the genius from my dreams, I need to learn more from her. She is the best teacher I will ever find. I know this.
Here, in the dark for however many days or weeks or months I will chase her. Even if she goes to the ends of the earth or even beneath it, I will follow.
***
Slice. I sidestep a slow and wide blow. An elbow to the gut and a flip over my knee.
"Nice."
He throws three razor sharp cuts. I sense her youki network's flare before she moves. My eyes can barely follow her movements now days, but it does not matter. I am already there.
A low swing from Ilena. It kicks of dirt and dust. I close my eyes. After this fight she will know its not my eyes that let me surpass her. In the cloud of dust our blades intertwine and clash and bite one another.
At last it end. My sword upon her throat. Her own nicking my forearm guard.
"You're getting better Ilena. You shouldn't only rely upon your fast swordsmanship, though. You should be able to move more agilely. Not every awakened being can be taken out in one-shot."
"I suppose you're right. I certainly have more trouble with Sophia than Noel when they double-team me. Still, I have the most trouble with you, and more agility won't get me a win against you."
"That's where you're wrong. You shouldn't aim to beat me. I'm unbeatable."
...
"Ysildre, I came."
"Thank you."
"I never expected you to send me your black card. We've only met on a couple hunts."
"Yes, Teresa of the Faint Smile. Or should I call you Teresa Keeper of Memories."
"No one calls me that."
"Ahh, there is that faint smile." She says nodding at my head. "True, it is a nickname my power suggested, but I doubt it will become popular. After all, the only one I have mentioned it to is you."
"And I think I will take it with me to my grave."
"Oh will you?" She said questioningly.
"I think I have a decent reputation for discretion. You're the gossip hound from what I've heard."
"Guilty as charged." Shsid raising her hand shamelessly. "You know, I saw you. Wielding a chain of swords. Fighting a volcano."
"Can't say I've ever picked a fight with a volcano."
"My gift let's me see different versions of us all. Paths we might have taken if not for small or not so small deviations."
"Is it very useful?" I mention finely intrigued. The elemental hitters, reinforcement and dominator type abilities have always been the most boring to me. The ones to do with knowledge and manipulation of powers are the most intriguing and bizarre.
"A bit like trying to send messages through interpretive dancing. Anyway, I wanted to speak to you because in most alternatives I've seen you become number 1 and you are quite proud of it."
"Ahh, is it over Ilena's corpse. I always figured I'd outlive her with the way she can get distracted sometimes in battle."
"No, she's sometimes alive and sometimes dead. You wind up dead or awakened pretty soon. Either that or you kill one of the abyssal ones."
Well that's a sobering thought. I'm not sure I like this other me.
"So my prophecy is greatness or death, eh? Tell me, in those things you saw did I ever tell you my power?"
"So you do have a power. I've always wondered. But no, you're equally closemouthed in every version I saw where you existed and became a warrior."
"Alright then. I'll tell you what my power is, if you'll take my hand."
I stretch out a hand. She watches it. Then extends and grasps it. A kaleidoscope of possibilities bombards my mind.
...
"Have you thought about my offer, child?"
"I have," I said to the priest.
"And your answer?"
"No. I love this land. I may hate every living thing upon it, but I love this land. I do not wish to leave it."
"A shame, but very well. I only ask your discretion then."
"And you shall have it." I say to the thing that bears no memories of being human. I attempt one more time to sense something--anything. I still feel nothing.
"You are far too dangerous for me to cross. I do not wish to get between any fighting between you and the organization. I do have a question, though."
He inclined his head. "Feel free to ask then, child."
"How old are you?"
He chuckled. "I thought you would ask about our other recruitment efforts or the rebellion or the talk of crusades. But no, you wish to know my age."
"All the other things I could find out from others. This is one question I feel only you can answer."
He studies me. He can probably read me better than I can read myself now days. "Be discreet about this too. I'm more than eleven and a half centuries."
"I thought so."
...
A black hank of hair. I turned away from it.
A hundred coins. Blood money.
I sat alone in the darkness. It pressed in on me. I pressed back harder.
I opened my eyes. Another nightmare of garbled memories. I turned to the auburn head pressed upon my side. I bent down and smelled it. It stank, but beneath that was the smell of eggs, of cattle and of a farm. It brushed something within me. I couldn't remember my past. Buried beneath a hundred other lives worth of stuff.
But I knew I had once smelled this.
"Wake up Clare. It's time to go."
I opened my eyes.
I couldn't sense any farther or deeper. I couldn't run any faster or swing my sword any swifter. My sword would not sink any deeper nor would my endurance last longer.
But I remembered.
The words she'd been trying to say to me every night in my dreams.
"Memories are eternal."
Within my cupped palms a small pearl of light twinkled.
AN: Ysildre's power basically looks through nearby universes and tries to find alternate dimensions that are ahead or around the same time as her own and very similar to her own. Then she witnesses alternate versions of present and future events. She knows her power has poor accuracy, but it is a very broad information gathering power and would be even stronger with help of other thinkers to filter and confirm information gathered in this manner.
Physically, I will always be forced to play catch up with everyone else. In terms of powers, I can see the weaknesses, vulnerabilities and faultlines of people around me, and especially myself. Still, I am too weak to exploit these openings. I know my problems but that does not fix them. It is useless right now.
In terms of sensing I am merely average. In terms of control and repressing youki I am slightly above average. The only thing in which I truly excel is skill and speed in learning. It is because of these memories.
I saw the weakness in my foe that day. She longs for death. She welcomes it. But Teresa wasn't strong enough to give it to her.
If I am to surpass Teresa, to become better than the genius from my dreams, I need to learn more from her. She is the best teacher I will ever find. I know this.
Here, in the dark for however many days or weeks or months I will chase her. Even if she goes to the ends of the earth or even beneath it, I will follow.
***
Slice. I sidestep a slow and wide blow. An elbow to the gut and a flip over my knee.
"Nice."
He throws three razor sharp cuts. I sense her youki network's flare before she moves. My eyes can barely follow her movements now days, but it does not matter. I am already there.
A low swing from Ilena. It kicks of dirt and dust. I close my eyes. After this fight she will know its not my eyes that let me surpass her. In the cloud of dust our blades intertwine and clash and bite one another.
At last it end. My sword upon her throat. Her own nicking my forearm guard.
"You're getting better Ilena. You shouldn't only rely upon your fast swordsmanship, though. You should be able to move more agilely. Not every awakened being can be taken out in one-shot."
"I suppose you're right. I certainly have more trouble with Sophia than Noel when they double-team me. Still, I have the most trouble with you, and more agility won't get me a win against you."
"That's where you're wrong. You shouldn't aim to beat me. I'm unbeatable."
...
"Ysildre, I came."
"Thank you."
"I never expected you to send me your black card. We've only met on a couple hunts."
"Yes, Teresa of the Faint Smile. Or should I call you Teresa Keeper of Memories."
"No one calls me that."
"Ahh, there is that faint smile." She says nodding at my head. "True, it is a nickname my power suggested, but I doubt it will become popular. After all, the only one I have mentioned it to is you."
"And I think I will take it with me to my grave."
"Oh will you?" She said questioningly.
"I think I have a decent reputation for discretion. You're the gossip hound from what I've heard."
"Guilty as charged." Shsid raising her hand shamelessly. "You know, I saw you. Wielding a chain of swords. Fighting a volcano."
"Can't say I've ever picked a fight with a volcano."
"My gift let's me see different versions of us all. Paths we might have taken if not for small or not so small deviations."
"Is it very useful?" I mention finely intrigued. The elemental hitters, reinforcement and dominator type abilities have always been the most boring to me. The ones to do with knowledge and manipulation of powers are the most intriguing and bizarre.
"A bit like trying to send messages through interpretive dancing. Anyway, I wanted to speak to you because in most alternatives I've seen you become number 1 and you are quite proud of it."
"Ahh, is it over Ilena's corpse. I always figured I'd outlive her with the way she can get distracted sometimes in battle."
"No, she's sometimes alive and sometimes dead. You wind up dead or awakened pretty soon. Either that or you kill one of the abyssal ones."
Well that's a sobering thought. I'm not sure I like this other me.
"So my prophecy is greatness or death, eh? Tell me, in those things you saw did I ever tell you my power?"
"So you do have a power. I've always wondered. But no, you're equally closemouthed in every version I saw where you existed and became a warrior."
"Alright then. I'll tell you what my power is, if you'll take my hand."
I stretch out a hand. She watches it. Then extends and grasps it. A kaleidoscope of possibilities bombards my mind.
...
"Have you thought about my offer, child?"
"I have," I said to the priest.
"And your answer?"
"No. I love this land. I may hate every living thing upon it, but I love this land. I do not wish to leave it."
"A shame, but very well. I only ask your discretion then."
"And you shall have it." I say to the thing that bears no memories of being human. I attempt one more time to sense something--anything. I still feel nothing.
"You are far too dangerous for me to cross. I do not wish to get between any fighting between you and the organization. I do have a question, though."
He inclined his head. "Feel free to ask then, child."
"How old are you?"
He chuckled. "I thought you would ask about our other recruitment efforts or the rebellion or the talk of crusades. But no, you wish to know my age."
"All the other things I could find out from others. This is one question I feel only you can answer."
He studies me. He can probably read me better than I can read myself now days. "Be discreet about this too. I'm more than eleven and a half centuries."
"I thought so."
...
A black hank of hair. I turned away from it.
A hundred coins. Blood money.
I sat alone in the darkness. It pressed in on me. I pressed back harder.
I opened my eyes. Another nightmare of garbled memories. I turned to the auburn head pressed upon my side. I bent down and smelled it. It stank, but beneath that was the smell of eggs, of cattle and of a farm. It brushed something within me. I couldn't remember my past. Buried beneath a hundred other lives worth of stuff.
But I knew I had once smelled this.
"Wake up Clare. It's time to go."
I opened my eyes.
I couldn't sense any farther or deeper. I couldn't run any faster or swing my sword any swifter. My sword would not sink any deeper nor would my endurance last longer.
But I remembered.
The words she'd been trying to say to me every night in my dreams.
"Memories are eternal."
Within my cupped palms a small pearl of light twinkled.
***
AN: Ysildre's power basically looks through nearby universes and tries to find alternate dimensions that are ahead or around the same time as her own and very similar to her own. Then she witnesses alternate versions of present and future events. She knows her power has poor accuracy, but it is a very broad information gathering power and would be even stronger with help of other thinkers to filter and confirm information gathered in this manner.
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Chapter 4: A Harsh Tongue
- Location
- CA
Chapter 4: A Harsh Tongue
I spent a month in the darkness. After that they took me out and gave me the same test. I passed this time, regretfully. I would have liked to have had more time in isolation with only the memories of Teresa to guide me. They also did not withhold food or drink from me, so I came out stronger and fitter than ever.
After leaving, I took careful note of the performance of my peers. I tailored myself to be average. I did not want to be pulled again to higher level classes because I already possessed the skills they were teaching. That would only accelerate my training, and what I needed most was time.
Digging through her memories I realized the average lifespan of a warrior who was not making the top 29 was one year. The average lifespan of an elitr was only a little better at two years, because they were forced to take more dangerous hunts. Only those who made it to the top five or six tended to live much longer than that. Even then only the ones who demonstrated high levels of loyalty to the organization.
I needed to not only be above average, but have some decent wiggle room too. As it is, half or more of the trainees would probably fail the final exam, and that would not even be the hard part. The hard part was surviving years of missions after that.
I learned that they had begun a mentoring phase where we worked with older trainees to refine our fighting forms, control or sensing. It provided personalized instruction time to fix mistakes. Meanwhile teaching the basics was now partly replaced by lessons in geography, hunting, and teamwork. As pairs we would need to takedown older trainees with with unknown powers. They would restrict themselves to using only their powers and less than 10% of their youki, but we also were not allowed to use lethal or crippling strikes.
In the practice yards their experience meant they had the terrain advantage and generally were familiar with the most common strategies we put together. While it was 2 vs 1 they knew our capabilities, but we were not given information on who they were or what they could do.
I got used to working out plans, and them not fully working. It was usually obvious to me when I saw the older trainee what sort of plan she was using. Whether it was to split us up, push us into a trap, or overwhelm us with a fast blitz, they each exposed a vulnerability (being pioneered, having the trap turned on them, or a stiff defense and weakness to counterattacks). There was also something strange with respect to blocking certain angles or just sight in general, but I couldn't figure out how to implement it.
As usual my power's insight proved underwhelming. The first time me and Rebecca fought a highly offensive fighter. When I saw she wanted to rush and overwhelm us while using a light defense, we tried to back up to keep a wall behind us. We didn't realize what her power was until she'd pushed us back and apart with heavy blows and kicks that undermined our footing. She failed to get through our defenses but her power prevented us from taking even a single step forward. Then she picked us apart separately.
The next match we pulled off our strategy and my partner even mixed in feints (and not so fake openings), while I tried to time the perfect counter. But somehow she was changing what we said to each other. I heard my partner shouting "wait, wait" while she was actually screeching "NOW, NOW."
In any case it wasn't the right time anyway. She was faster than me, after all. To land a blow I needed not just a distraction, I learned, but to also come in from the side in a headshot of her vision.
I went down shortly after she took out Rebecca. A sideswipe to my forearm that disarmed me with enough force it crushed my bones. Even with blunted practice blades, injuries were common and encouraged. It did give us plenty of practice on channeling youki to accelerate our healing.
That night Selene visited me.
"Clare, I've heard what they're saying. You can talk to me if you're having a problem."
"Huh?"
"They're saying you speak to almost no one outside of practices. And that when you do it's usually criticisms. You have one of those powers that make you a genius, right? I do too. But people tend to think we're stuck-up unless we're careful. You're feeding the stereotype."
I...didn't know that.
"I don't mean to." I manage.
"It doesn't matter what you intend. They'll still gossip about it and it smears all of us. It's not even like we're all geniuses like you. Most of us are just really, really good at a narrow topic."
I committed to being less critical of people around me. It meant giving out less advice, but now that I thought about it even, Nelly, the sturdy girl with the short bowl-shaped cut I practiced most frequently with, didn't follow my advice.
It wasn't just my weak powers telling me what people were doing wrong. It was also Teresa's experience, and the styles she built based on copies of over two dozens claymore's memories and experience.
If they didn't want it. They wouldn't have it.
Omake: Suffering of a Senpai
"How was it Odette?"
"Awful. I would have lost if Reina hadn't copied their conversation and played back their words for me. Even messing up their communication almost didn't work." I said as I cleaned a smudge I'd missed earlier from my sword.
"At least, you have Reina working with you. Until they figure out her trick she's one of the best partners you could have. Just wait until they start switching things up again."
"Don't remind me."
I hate all the curriculum revisions they've been pulling on us. The day these joint exercises started Odette had been expecting to fight and me to sit on the sidelines since I had no special abilities. Then they said everyone with powers who could use them at a distance would be hiding and supporting warriors like me who would be facing the tag teams.
Oh I saw the genius behind it. Later we could switch the partners and throw all sorts of surprises into things, and we got more experience working alongside other warriors. Still, springing it on us like that meant it was either a last minute change, a test or those handlers are watching us from one of those windows jerking off at their brilliance. Maybe there's even a competition to mess with us as hard as possible.
"Do you think they can really do it?" Asked Dorothy twirling her hair and looking up at the sky.
"Hmm?" I looked up too. There was nothing up there. But that was Dorothy.
"Project Osiris. Do you think there's hope for us to gain powers?" I turned to look at her. There was hope there, and desperation. We didn't know what happened to those who failed. Presumably the lucky ones ended up as Instructors like Chloe.
"I wouldn't keep my fingers crossed. Who knows how many they'll butcher before they get it right." I said thinking of Frieda and Marie. I clenched my hand, but kept a calm face.
Dorothy looked down. We walked back towards the practice hall together.
"If I could have any power I'd want to fly. To fly up and see for miles around. If I became a warrior between missions I could fly around and just observe people discreetly. Maybe one day I'd find my parents again."
Would they even accept us back. After my father died my mother had sold me, but it hadn't been out greed or heartlessness. I still remember the new lines on her face and her exhortations to me to be brave. Hoping against common sense I'd have a better life than starving with her or being used on her back like she was going to be until she sickened from something.
"I don't think I'd want to see my mother. I don't think she'd be happy to see what became of me, and I don't think I'd like to see what became of her." I said.
When we got to the practice hall we ran through three sets and then five before I talked Dorothy into a spar. I may have gone a bit harder than I meant to. I was still worked up from the fight earlier.
That night I prayed. I prayed to the goddess Clare and Teresa to make it stop hurting. I prayed, just in case it helped, to the Rabonian God too. If he existed, to give my mother another husband and another daughter in that order.
I spent a month in the darkness. After that they took me out and gave me the same test. I passed this time, regretfully. I would have liked to have had more time in isolation with only the memories of Teresa to guide me. They also did not withhold food or drink from me, so I came out stronger and fitter than ever.
After leaving, I took careful note of the performance of my peers. I tailored myself to be average. I did not want to be pulled again to higher level classes because I already possessed the skills they were teaching. That would only accelerate my training, and what I needed most was time.
Digging through her memories I realized the average lifespan of a warrior who was not making the top 29 was one year. The average lifespan of an elitr was only a little better at two years, because they were forced to take more dangerous hunts. Only those who made it to the top five or six tended to live much longer than that. Even then only the ones who demonstrated high levels of loyalty to the organization.
I needed to not only be above average, but have some decent wiggle room too. As it is, half or more of the trainees would probably fail the final exam, and that would not even be the hard part. The hard part was surviving years of missions after that.
I learned that they had begun a mentoring phase where we worked with older trainees to refine our fighting forms, control or sensing. It provided personalized instruction time to fix mistakes. Meanwhile teaching the basics was now partly replaced by lessons in geography, hunting, and teamwork. As pairs we would need to takedown older trainees with with unknown powers. They would restrict themselves to using only their powers and less than 10% of their youki, but we also were not allowed to use lethal or crippling strikes.
In the practice yards their experience meant they had the terrain advantage and generally were familiar with the most common strategies we put together. While it was 2 vs 1 they knew our capabilities, but we were not given information on who they were or what they could do.
I got used to working out plans, and them not fully working. It was usually obvious to me when I saw the older trainee what sort of plan she was using. Whether it was to split us up, push us into a trap, or overwhelm us with a fast blitz, they each exposed a vulnerability (being pioneered, having the trap turned on them, or a stiff defense and weakness to counterattacks). There was also something strange with respect to blocking certain angles or just sight in general, but I couldn't figure out how to implement it.
As usual my power's insight proved underwhelming. The first time me and Rebecca fought a highly offensive fighter. When I saw she wanted to rush and overwhelm us while using a light defense, we tried to back up to keep a wall behind us. We didn't realize what her power was until she'd pushed us back and apart with heavy blows and kicks that undermined our footing. She failed to get through our defenses but her power prevented us from taking even a single step forward. Then she picked us apart separately.
The next match we pulled off our strategy and my partner even mixed in feints (and not so fake openings), while I tried to time the perfect counter. But somehow she was changing what we said to each other. I heard my partner shouting "wait, wait" while she was actually screeching "NOW, NOW."
In any case it wasn't the right time anyway. She was faster than me, after all. To land a blow I needed not just a distraction, I learned, but to also come in from the side in a headshot of her vision.
I went down shortly after she took out Rebecca. A sideswipe to my forearm that disarmed me with enough force it crushed my bones. Even with blunted practice blades, injuries were common and encouraged. It did give us plenty of practice on channeling youki to accelerate our healing.
That night Selene visited me.
"Clare, I've heard what they're saying. You can talk to me if you're having a problem."
"Huh?"
"They're saying you speak to almost no one outside of practices. And that when you do it's usually criticisms. You have one of those powers that make you a genius, right? I do too. But people tend to think we're stuck-up unless we're careful. You're feeding the stereotype."
I...didn't know that.
"I don't mean to." I manage.
"It doesn't matter what you intend. They'll still gossip about it and it smears all of us. It's not even like we're all geniuses like you. Most of us are just really, really good at a narrow topic."
I committed to being less critical of people around me. It meant giving out less advice, but now that I thought about it even, Nelly, the sturdy girl with the short bowl-shaped cut I practiced most frequently with, didn't follow my advice.
It wasn't just my weak powers telling me what people were doing wrong. It was also Teresa's experience, and the styles she built based on copies of over two dozens claymore's memories and experience.
If they didn't want it. They wouldn't have it.
***
Omake: Suffering of a Senpai
"How was it Odette?"
"Awful. I would have lost if Reina hadn't copied their conversation and played back their words for me. Even messing up their communication almost didn't work." I said as I cleaned a smudge I'd missed earlier from my sword.
"At least, you have Reina working with you. Until they figure out her trick she's one of the best partners you could have. Just wait until they start switching things up again."
"Don't remind me."
I hate all the curriculum revisions they've been pulling on us. The day these joint exercises started Odette had been expecting to fight and me to sit on the sidelines since I had no special abilities. Then they said everyone with powers who could use them at a distance would be hiding and supporting warriors like me who would be facing the tag teams.
Oh I saw the genius behind it. Later we could switch the partners and throw all sorts of surprises into things, and we got more experience working alongside other warriors. Still, springing it on us like that meant it was either a last minute change, a test or those handlers are watching us from one of those windows jerking off at their brilliance. Maybe there's even a competition to mess with us as hard as possible.
"Do you think they can really do it?" Asked Dorothy twirling her hair and looking up at the sky.
"Hmm?" I looked up too. There was nothing up there. But that was Dorothy.
"Project Osiris. Do you think there's hope for us to gain powers?" I turned to look at her. There was hope there, and desperation. We didn't know what happened to those who failed. Presumably the lucky ones ended up as Instructors like Chloe.
"I wouldn't keep my fingers crossed. Who knows how many they'll butcher before they get it right." I said thinking of Frieda and Marie. I clenched my hand, but kept a calm face.
Dorothy looked down. We walked back towards the practice hall together.
"If I could have any power I'd want to fly. To fly up and see for miles around. If I became a warrior between missions I could fly around and just observe people discreetly. Maybe one day I'd find my parents again."
Would they even accept us back. After my father died my mother had sold me, but it hadn't been out greed or heartlessness. I still remember the new lines on her face and her exhortations to me to be brave. Hoping against common sense I'd have a better life than starving with her or being used on her back like she was going to be until she sickened from something.
"I don't think I'd want to see my mother. I don't think she'd be happy to see what became of me, and I don't think I'd like to see what became of her." I said.
When we got to the practice hall we ran through three sets and then five before I talked Dorothy into a spar. I may have gone a bit harder than I meant to. I was still worked up from the fight earlier.
That night I prayed. I prayed to the goddess Clare and Teresa to make it stop hurting. I prayed, just in case it helped, to the Rabonian God too. If he existed, to give my mother another husband and another daughter in that order.
***
AN: Selene is actually softening the gossip. I think the actual words are something like "crippled, stuck-up braggart." It doesn't help that she's spent a month in isolation while her peers bonded in shared suffering as much as they were allowed to.
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JamesB
You needed worthy opponents.
- Location
- Kansas
I read the Claymore manga as it came out and have watched the anime series (the whole one season they produced before it diverged from the manga). You did a good job of capturing the feel for the Organization and the Claymores themselves, but I'm having a problem picking out the Worm elements as opposed to generic super powers. So far, the only one I've got a reading on is Clare having a Tattletale-lite Thinker power that is only good for picking out weak spots (possibly a Thinker version of Faultline?). Ysildre seems to have a variant of Clairvoyant's and Dinah's power, but I'm not sure about anyone else.
I've read these initial chapters, but don't know if I'll continue to read more. I know a large part of it is that when I see "Worm crossover" I'm expecting Brockton Bay with the crossover elements inserted in that setting. Cauldron doing stuff, Endbringers killing cities, and the ever present threat of Scion waiting to kill the multiverse. Here, the youma and Awakened/Ravenous ones rank (at best) as roaming A and S class threats. They can be killed, but take a lot of Claymores working together. That's a far cry from an Endbringer battle where a "win" is "only 1/4 of the defenders died and the city was lost, but nothing else was damaged".
I've read these initial chapters, but don't know if I'll continue to read more. I know a large part of it is that when I see "Worm crossover" I'm expecting Brockton Bay with the crossover elements inserted in that setting. Cauldron doing stuff, Endbringers killing cities, and the ever present threat of Scion waiting to kill the multiverse. Here, the youma and Awakened/Ravenous ones rank (at best) as roaming A and S class threats. They can be killed, but take a lot of Claymores working together. That's a far cry from an Endbringer battle where a "win" is "only 1/4 of the defenders died and the city was lost, but nothing else was damaged".
- Location
- CA
The most potent application of Teresa's powers is that she's a trump. It was also hinted earlier in the first Omake that the stronger shards, for compatibility reasons, tending to match with stronger hosts or allow their host access to more of their powers. There's no experience or learning possible in giving them a weak power if they're already strong enough that they'd never choose to use it in a fight anyway.
As for incorporating more worm, I'm not planning to for a long time. Be prepared for this to be Claymore with worm power mechanics as I said up top. I doubt they'll even figure out the mechanisms behind the powers that are appearing. I am considering possibly intersecting the dimensions at golden morning (aka the multiversal boss battle), but powers have only been around in Claymore universe for about a decade. Assuming a 1:1 ratio for the passage of time between these two dimensions, if I go through with that it will still be quite a while before that event.
In terms of other powers, it's going to be really awful for tinkers unless you're a biotinker. They aren't going to find a lot of useful materials or tools. Neither the Organization nor groups like the northern army of awakened ones are eager to be patrons (i.e. provide material support). The closest they'll find to sponsors is the Rabonians, so they're getting a reputation as "Innovators" rather than tinkers since they mostly provide productive economic, health or transportation inventions (they probably could build a weapon to take down Yoma but in general their usefulness as artisans of war is pretty low). For example, a claymore with Squealer's shard isn't going to be able to build a souped-up carriage or wagon that goes faster than she can run cross-country on her own two feet given the available materials. But her vehicles would be the envy of every merchant using a horse-drawn carriage. The exception, of course, is biotinkers, who are going to be overpowered.
With masters it's going to be harder for some of them than for others, but in general if their powers work they're going to be very potent. For example, Regent would hate being here, because all of the unique physiologies are going to make his power pretty worthless beyond making monsters twitch. Brainwashing a ginormous Awakened being also won't be as easy or as quick as doing the same to a regular human. For example, Valefor's power may require much longer eye contact and he won't be able to set commands that trigger as far into the future. If your power already works on huge numbers or across a large scale, though, like Skitter's or Cherish's then you may not have any difficulty affecting awakened beings (well assuming they're an invertebrate and qualify for Skitter).
As for incorporating more worm, I'm not planning to for a long time. Be prepared for this to be Claymore with worm power mechanics as I said up top. I doubt they'll even figure out the mechanisms behind the powers that are appearing. I am considering possibly intersecting the dimensions at golden morning (aka the multiversal boss battle), but powers have only been around in Claymore universe for about a decade. Assuming a 1:1 ratio for the passage of time between these two dimensions, if I go through with that it will still be quite a while before that event.
In terms of other powers, it's going to be really awful for tinkers unless you're a biotinker. They aren't going to find a lot of useful materials or tools. Neither the Organization nor groups like the northern army of awakened ones are eager to be patrons (i.e. provide material support). The closest they'll find to sponsors is the Rabonians, so they're getting a reputation as "Innovators" rather than tinkers since they mostly provide productive economic, health or transportation inventions (they probably could build a weapon to take down Yoma but in general their usefulness as artisans of war is pretty low). For example, a claymore with Squealer's shard isn't going to be able to build a souped-up carriage or wagon that goes faster than she can run cross-country on her own two feet given the available materials. But her vehicles would be the envy of every merchant using a horse-drawn carriage. The exception, of course, is biotinkers, who are going to be overpowered.
With masters it's going to be harder for some of them than for others, but in general if their powers work they're going to be very potent. For example, Regent would hate being here, because all of the unique physiologies are going to make his power pretty worthless beyond making monsters twitch. Brainwashing a ginormous Awakened being also won't be as easy or as quick as doing the same to a regular human. For example, Valefor's power may require much longer eye contact and he won't be able to set commands that trigger as far into the future. If your power already works on huge numbers or across a large scale, though, like Skitter's or Cherish's then you may not have any difficulty affecting awakened beings (well assuming they're an invertebrate and qualify for Skitter).
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Chapter 5: Clare
- Location
- CA
Chapter 5: Clare
The number of warriors in the organization has traditionally been 47. For some reason that number has been falling recently. It is down now to 42. In another year they may field only 40 warriors.
The better a warrior is the lower their number. The numbers are more than just a rank. You can't duel a higher ranked warrior, win and expect to switch numbers. I suspect loyalty, value to future operations, and maybe even satisfying particularly troublesome egos sometimes goes into the ranking.
That generally holds for numbers 10 and up. Number 1-9 are called the "single-digits" and are chosen based on combat prowess both individually and in small squads. You can't just be the ninth best soldier if the 10th best is a better leader and has a more suitable style for tackling serious threats.
Their names are written down. Remembered by us and future generations. Their styles studied but never directly copied. We are encouraged to build on them and develop new ones.
The other thing that separates the single digits is that until special powers started awakening they'd almost always develop a unique style or technique. Even now, most of the single digits have one. They become experts at it, and even those who try to simply copy them often hit a wall.
I didn't understand what that wall was until I witnessed Teresa's final battle with "Glass-Eyed Rosemary." In their first fight Rosemary possessed no power. Teresa confirmed it by skimming off Rosemary's memories. Her technique let her simultaneously observe all possible trajectories of a blade, and react second but strike first.
When she traumatically awakened her new power she stopped training her technique. When activated her power gave her raw speed at the cost of generating a constant amount of additional heat. After about twelve or thirteen seconds a normal human would have to stop. But as a warrior bonded with a Yoma's blood and flesh, despite it slightly burning her, she could keep on going and the heat only added to her destructiveness.
Teresa was upset when she saw her attack. All she did was defend, at first. She took damage, especially since Rosemary was in her awakened form. Then Teresa demanded she start fighting for real.
Neither of us understood what she meant until she took a new stance. The opening stance to the glass-eyed style.
"Come" she said.
Rosemary came and fell.
That memory made me realize Teresa could never properly execute the glass-eyed technique. For all her strength, speed and instant precision sensing she lacked a certain quality that only Rosemary possessed.
A technique or fighting style must be individualized because--even if you have every memory of the motions and practice put in, even if you exceed all the requirements in every aspect, and fully understand the theory behind the technique--you will fail. You will get a cheap knock-off that cannot defy ones limits, or touch a realm beyond even warriors.
I saw Teresa close her silver-eyes and at the same time I saw the blow slice deep into Rosemary's corrupted form. I saw the handle move after the blade leapt and Rosemary staring at the place Teresa once stood. Still stood.
I felt Teresa's bone deep frustration and dissatisfaction.
The glass-eyed style was never completed. Just as hundreds of other styles of the previous 77 generations were never completed.
Just as Teresa of the Faint Smile's style was never completed.
***
After six months I stopped waking up earlier and staying up later to practice, run through forms, or attempt to sense youki from further away. It was still necessary and I tried to practice as much as my peers, but the rest of my time I spent in a fugue. They started calling me the daydreamer. Selene didn't visit me about it, though.
It was tough to recall memories that Teresa had picked up from others. It was like looking down at a puddle and staring at your reflection. Then meeting the eyes of your reflection and watching yourself in there. I got better at it in time, but as the memories but I felt as if I only remembered bits and pieces of what lay there.
Still, bits and pieces of the lives of dozens of expert warriors was nothing to scoff at. Teresa had lived a long time, copying memories of anyone notable. When she first became a single-digit, the number one at the time was named Hysteria the Elegant.
It was a fitting name--both parts. When she moved her four braids danced in the wind. No, she left the wind far behind and they danced in her own aura.
I sometimes came out of fugues feeling a trace of their arrogance or sorrow or cold-fury. I would have to remind myself who I was or even what I was. A trainee and far from the best amoung them.
I had no family to miss or parents to revile. I had been insulted but never feared by townspeople, and there was nothing I'd accomplished or could do yet to feel pride or shame over.
It was when I was delving deep. Deeper than I'd ever dared to go before that I had my first accident. It was when Hysteria, was standing upon Rockwell hill. The corpses of countless warriors draped around or below her. Two awakened ones retreating in the distance. Teresa reaching down to her fallen form to touch her. Her last memory and the most indelibly carved one.
I felt her calling out. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die!" It started as a prickling, cold tide of desire. To deny her/my death and all that came with it. To run from that memory and the shame of it all. Except I wanted to run deeper. Deeper into my past to better times and days when I was unparalleled and unbeaten.
Before I could take the first step a hand grabbed me. The arm was the thick tree trunk like limb of Alexandria, but her face caused the name Ysildre to spring to mind.
"Stop. Breath." Her voice echoed with two other voices. I could almost half remember one of them. I hated that person. Whoever she was.
"Remember who you, Clare."
Clare. That's not my name. But it's the name I was given. By someone important.
Then it was like I'd been dumped in a mountain lake. I could breath. I could remember Teresa calling me a fool and an idiot.
"Go back."
She pushed me and I struggled to surface. To leave the mirror and to leave the pool and to leave myself.
Then I was lying down. Dawn still an hour off. We'd been needing less sleep lately and I realized everyone else had already awoken and left.
After that I did not enter any memories except Teresa's. Even that I rationed as I threw myself into more training, such as parrying glancing blows with the new vambraces we'd been commissioned.
It took a long while before I took any further dives into memories Teresa had collected and I did not re-enter Hysteria's.
Still, the months of searching had taught me something. The myriad of ways to discover your specialty as a warrior. Dozens of ways unique ways to train yourself in what you do best. Perhaps most importantly, the thing they all had in common.
Every warrior I had seen had faced their death. Had challenged their limits. Had been pushed past what they could bear and had gotten a glimpse at who they really were. Sometimes they were saved by a comrade, or sometimes that insight let them overcome their foe.
I realized upper ranks were more likely to discover Their specialty because they entered into dangerous fights with awakened beings alongside three other teammates, who could step in if they were about to die. The best tended to receive insight early in their career or not at all. After all, if they were already powerful single digits and were being overwhelmed then what was the chances one of their teammates could successfully step and save their life.
Teresa had been in that "not at all" category and it had frustrated her. She'd only grasped her problem after she'd become too skilled to safely enter such a circumstance.
Instead, she had taken the long hard road of training herself in every way imaginable until one day she felt something align within her.
Perhaps, if she'd had such an experience she could have completed her style. Perhaps she would still be alive.
Regardless, my weakness was a strength for once. I looked down at my stub and recalled the memory of how I'd received it. I would relive it a hundred or a thousand times if that's what it took. I would follow the path Teresa had always wanted to walk.
***
AN: Clare in the manga learned or developed her own version of a number of techniques from other single digits. But as Irene/Ilena (depending upon the translation) said she wasn't perfectly suited for hers, and wouldn't be able to master it
Thus, in my interpretation of the Claymore universe, and again this is an AU so I won't always follow canon, you can learn other people's specialties, but you'll need more work, speed, strength, etc to be as good with it as they were. You also eventually reach a cap on proficiency that they wouldn't have had.
The number of warriors in the organization has traditionally been 47. For some reason that number has been falling recently. It is down now to 42. In another year they may field only 40 warriors.
The better a warrior is the lower their number. The numbers are more than just a rank. You can't duel a higher ranked warrior, win and expect to switch numbers. I suspect loyalty, value to future operations, and maybe even satisfying particularly troublesome egos sometimes goes into the ranking.
That generally holds for numbers 10 and up. Number 1-9 are called the "single-digits" and are chosen based on combat prowess both individually and in small squads. You can't just be the ninth best soldier if the 10th best is a better leader and has a more suitable style for tackling serious threats.
Their names are written down. Remembered by us and future generations. Their styles studied but never directly copied. We are encouraged to build on them and develop new ones.
The other thing that separates the single digits is that until special powers started awakening they'd almost always develop a unique style or technique. Even now, most of the single digits have one. They become experts at it, and even those who try to simply copy them often hit a wall.
I didn't understand what that wall was until I witnessed Teresa's final battle with "Glass-Eyed Rosemary." In their first fight Rosemary possessed no power. Teresa confirmed it by skimming off Rosemary's memories. Her technique let her simultaneously observe all possible trajectories of a blade, and react second but strike first.
When she traumatically awakened her new power she stopped training her technique. When activated her power gave her raw speed at the cost of generating a constant amount of additional heat. After about twelve or thirteen seconds a normal human would have to stop. But as a warrior bonded with a Yoma's blood and flesh, despite it slightly burning her, she could keep on going and the heat only added to her destructiveness.
Teresa was upset when she saw her attack. All she did was defend, at first. She took damage, especially since Rosemary was in her awakened form. Then Teresa demanded she start fighting for real.
Neither of us understood what she meant until she took a new stance. The opening stance to the glass-eyed style.
"Come" she said.
Rosemary came and fell.
That memory made me realize Teresa could never properly execute the glass-eyed technique. For all her strength, speed and instant precision sensing she lacked a certain quality that only Rosemary possessed.
A technique or fighting style must be individualized because--even if you have every memory of the motions and practice put in, even if you exceed all the requirements in every aspect, and fully understand the theory behind the technique--you will fail. You will get a cheap knock-off that cannot defy ones limits, or touch a realm beyond even warriors.
I saw Teresa close her silver-eyes and at the same time I saw the blow slice deep into Rosemary's corrupted form. I saw the handle move after the blade leapt and Rosemary staring at the place Teresa once stood. Still stood.
I felt Teresa's bone deep frustration and dissatisfaction.
The glass-eyed style was never completed. Just as hundreds of other styles of the previous 77 generations were never completed.
Just as Teresa of the Faint Smile's style was never completed.
***
After six months I stopped waking up earlier and staying up later to practice, run through forms, or attempt to sense youki from further away. It was still necessary and I tried to practice as much as my peers, but the rest of my time I spent in a fugue. They started calling me the daydreamer. Selene didn't visit me about it, though.
It was tough to recall memories that Teresa had picked up from others. It was like looking down at a puddle and staring at your reflection. Then meeting the eyes of your reflection and watching yourself in there. I got better at it in time, but as the memories but I felt as if I only remembered bits and pieces of what lay there.
Still, bits and pieces of the lives of dozens of expert warriors was nothing to scoff at. Teresa had lived a long time, copying memories of anyone notable. When she first became a single-digit, the number one at the time was named Hysteria the Elegant.
It was a fitting name--both parts. When she moved her four braids danced in the wind. No, she left the wind far behind and they danced in her own aura.
I sometimes came out of fugues feeling a trace of their arrogance or sorrow or cold-fury. I would have to remind myself who I was or even what I was. A trainee and far from the best amoung them.
I had no family to miss or parents to revile. I had been insulted but never feared by townspeople, and there was nothing I'd accomplished or could do yet to feel pride or shame over.
It was when I was delving deep. Deeper than I'd ever dared to go before that I had my first accident. It was when Hysteria, was standing upon Rockwell hill. The corpses of countless warriors draped around or below her. Two awakened ones retreating in the distance. Teresa reaching down to her fallen form to touch her. Her last memory and the most indelibly carved one.
I felt her calling out. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die!" It started as a prickling, cold tide of desire. To deny her/my death and all that came with it. To run from that memory and the shame of it all. Except I wanted to run deeper. Deeper into my past to better times and days when I was unparalleled and unbeaten.
Before I could take the first step a hand grabbed me. The arm was the thick tree trunk like limb of Alexandria, but her face caused the name Ysildre to spring to mind.
"Stop. Breath." Her voice echoed with two other voices. I could almost half remember one of them. I hated that person. Whoever she was.
"Remember who you, Clare."
Clare. That's not my name. But it's the name I was given. By someone important.
Then it was like I'd been dumped in a mountain lake. I could breath. I could remember Teresa calling me a fool and an idiot.
"Go back."
She pushed me and I struggled to surface. To leave the mirror and to leave the pool and to leave myself.
Then I was lying down. Dawn still an hour off. We'd been needing less sleep lately and I realized everyone else had already awoken and left.
After that I did not enter any memories except Teresa's. Even that I rationed as I threw myself into more training, such as parrying glancing blows with the new vambraces we'd been commissioned.
It took a long while before I took any further dives into memories Teresa had collected and I did not re-enter Hysteria's.
Still, the months of searching had taught me something. The myriad of ways to discover your specialty as a warrior. Dozens of ways unique ways to train yourself in what you do best. Perhaps most importantly, the thing they all had in common.
Every warrior I had seen had faced their death. Had challenged their limits. Had been pushed past what they could bear and had gotten a glimpse at who they really were. Sometimes they were saved by a comrade, or sometimes that insight let them overcome their foe.
I realized upper ranks were more likely to discover Their specialty because they entered into dangerous fights with awakened beings alongside three other teammates, who could step in if they were about to die. The best tended to receive insight early in their career or not at all. After all, if they were already powerful single digits and were being overwhelmed then what was the chances one of their teammates could successfully step and save their life.
Teresa had been in that "not at all" category and it had frustrated her. She'd only grasped her problem after she'd become too skilled to safely enter such a circumstance.
Instead, she had taken the long hard road of training herself in every way imaginable until one day she felt something align within her.
Perhaps, if she'd had such an experience she could have completed her style. Perhaps she would still be alive.
Regardless, my weakness was a strength for once. I looked down at my stub and recalled the memory of how I'd received it. I would relive it a hundred or a thousand times if that's what it took. I would follow the path Teresa had always wanted to walk.
***
AN: Clare in the manga learned or developed her own version of a number of techniques from other single digits. But as Irene/Ilena (depending upon the translation) said she wasn't perfectly suited for hers, and wouldn't be able to master it
(of course, she also innovated an improved version of it). In the end, they weren't the deciding factor in her final battle. She fell back on the one thing she'd pioneered since the battle in the Pieta. Weird pseudo-awakenings. To me, that was where her true talent lay. Of course, the Clare in my fic is different enough (not to mention a proper hybrid to begin with) that she might have something completely different.
Thus, in my interpretation of the Claymore universe, and again this is an AU so I won't always follow canon, you can learn other people's specialties, but you'll need more work, speed, strength, etc to be as good with it as they were. You also eventually reach a cap on proficiency that they wouldn't have had.
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Interlude: Regional Director Fel
- Location
- CA
Interlude: Region Director Fel
"Have you finished your updates to the catalogue of powers?" Mentioned Radomel as he entered my office.
"Yes, Orsay just came to pick up a copy to look over. By the way, have you heard the rumors coming out of Dae's research pen. I think somebody owes me several drinks given the evidence confirming my theory about the genetic potential of people with powers being unlocked."
"Are you talking about the three children of power holders who have manifested powers of their own?"
"Yes. Moreover, they have similar powers to their parents or grandparent in one case. If Miranda's theory about it being caused by some contagious factor were correct that still wouldn't explain the intrafamily power similarities."
"It could simply be genetics guiding the expression and a contagious factor bringing it out."
"Ahh, waffling already to a composite theory. Yes, that's also a possibility, but it still justifies the Farm." I rubbed in. I knew he had doubts about the Farm, but he needed to bow to necessity. There were worse things.
"Anyway, we're getting off topic. I came here to invite to tell you the council is meeting in an hour." Said Radomel.
"Usual location?"
"Yes. I expect they'll want you to justify your suggested amendments to the power ranking and classification system. Its displeased some of the department heads that you want to revise it again instead of finishing it already and classifying the rest as exceptions or a subclass."
"The Innovators are not a subclass of Knowledge Bearers. I always told Chief Rimuto that it was a mistake to lump them together with the Knowledge Types."
"Fine. Just know this is somewhere between second and third priority for them and they're liable to just use your last draft going forward if you can't justify yourself properly."
***
I entered the council chambers to hear them arguing.
"It was a mistake to plant that male Awakened one next to Saint Lucien." Said Orsay
"It was necessary to maintain our monopoly. The rest of their saints hardly matter since they can't find the Yoma, but Lucien had cleared out the sector." Argued back Gotho.
"Aren't you forgetting Father Damien and Sister Naomi? They're still out there so we still don't have a monopoly, and this just made them double their security and go into hiding."
"They can't be everywhere and hiding has forced them to take fewer jobs." Retorted Gotho who was beginning to look irritated.
"Still, this has only reconfirmed suspicions that have been brewing that we're behind Yoma and Voracious Eaters. As long as our reputation among the populace remains poor and a possible alternative exists some villages will wait until it's too late and face partial or total decimation rather than call upon our services promptly as they did before." As Orsay finished they both lapses into silence.
Left unsaid was another option. The Cleansing Hand was a criminal organization that sought to cleanse the land of the Yoma plague. That's right. They saw it as a plague. Thus, they did not bother with trying to determine the culprit. They divided the families in a village in half and secluded each half. Whichever half continued to have people go missing was executed down to the last child and pet. Even livestock were burned.
It was the incompetence of the uneducated peasant masses on display as usual. Of course, they couldn't come up with a better strategy than half-hearted mercy and half-hearted ruthlessness.
"There's a simple solution. We just need to prop up the other theory floating around. That it's the Northern Army at fault. Increase our support for the crusader faction and they'll take care of themselves." I proposed.
"That's precisely our problem, Fel. We don't have the resources to send further support. Only your district has kept its numbers up. We've been hit by with the dual issues of falling outside support and reduced revenue from our local operations, especially from Mucha. Adding more time between new generations of warriors, is finally has us down to only being able to replenish five sixths of our usual standing forces."
"Not truly an issue. Fewer missions means fewer warriors are needed. Plus fewer warriors mean fewer future awakened beings. Our trainees are covering the rest of the leftover missions." Or at least they were on paper. In the real world, it was a bit more complicated then that.
"Yes, but that's balanced by us having to take fewer awakened being hunts. We've also recently lost track of all of our recruitment agents in the South after the fighting with Elda and the Cleansing Hand ended up creating the briar wall. Until we can afford to send Priscilla over it we have no idea what is going on in a almost a fifth of the land."
"Resources wouldn't fix that problem." Added Orsay. He politely didn't mention Orsay's possible bias.
Rimuto cleared his throat and we all fell silent. "Now that Fel's here let's cease talking of these old issues and concentrate on new ones. But first, where's Dae?"
"Unfortunately, he's begged off attending yet again. He says his current work on the Osiris Project cannot be halted." Said a man with black short rimmed hat. I hadn't seen him before, which probably meant he was not a department head or regional director.
There was some soft mutterings at Dae's behavior before Rimuto chose to move on.
"Very well, Abel. I assume he sent you as his replacement then. The first item of business therefore will be his requested increased to the size of the farm. What results has he attained to justify that?"
I winced. The farm had its critics even in this room, but the payoff more than justified such a long-term investment. Sometimes I feel like my peers have lived too long in this new land. That they're starting to forget what's at stake. Powers didn't solve a single damn problem. It just doubled stakes we're playing for.
"As you no doubt have heard he has managed to induce awakening of powers in three children of powered subjects. All had highly prized powers for the war effort, and no usage of the parasites was necessary for any stage of the process. They are clean for export if we wish, although Dae is requesting at least one remain for the next generation of the farm."
"Does he think we can leverage that for more outside funding? It is cheaper and easier to just scale up our kidnappings to get 3 more useful power users."
"I disagree." Countered Abel. "If you scale up operations they have an increased visibility and they will make all further operations harder in the long run. As it is our informant network is finding it harder and harder to locate fresh power users or 'God-touched.' Many of the kidnapped also are already brainwashed by the church into believing they are actually God-touched and their desire to become saints or crusaders is only going to make it harder to safely transport and use them."
"One last point," he said with a wide grin. "One of the three children from the farm is registering as a level 7.8 farmer. His power has to do with the growth and manipulation of plants. He would be exceedingly hard to safely transport if he'd been kidnapped, but he's been properly trained from birth and will be easy to control."
...this was more impressive than I'd expected. 7.8 was high. Given the usefulness of his ability the promise of more offspring with similar abilities may very well help us compete with the new mainland research institutes.
"I hope he realizes if he gets the money he certainly won't be able to keep the boy."
"An acceptable loss given what he's focusing on. Let the Caiman college focus on finding matches that will give us disposable powered armies. Dae has focused his research on breeding and controlling the expression of powers."
I lifted an eyebrow at that. Six months ago we'd been twisting his arm to not use the twins for his project Osiris focused on giving powers. Was he already pivoting his research agenda?
"If so, it will be a lot easier to sell the mainland on this being the first of more eugenically grown power users. But please Miranda up to give us a report as well. She always offers a fresh perspective." Added Rimuto.
Abel bowed and left. Giving no sign he took it as an implied slight at his boss. If his boss even noticed it would probably only be irritation at losing his "best assistant in decades."
"Very well. Fel, you had a new idea for mobilizing innovators, and are pushing for a modification to make them a separate class again rather than a subclass of knowledge bearers. Explain." Said Rimuto smoothly transitioning.
"Of course, chief. The inspiration for this was seeing Holly scavenge and improve the designs of Elda's salvaged armor."
"You're talking about that chain mail armor she built out of bones and teeth of other awakened, right?" Noted Radomel.
"Yes, it functioned properly as armor but the durability of its joints left something to be desired. Still, the weight is several times lighter than we ever expected. Holly took some of the broken fragments and reforged them into a smaller version. Then filled the hollowed out portions filled with many supporting structures with a liquid gel courtesy of Miranda's latest thermal cell wall designs. Finally, to address the added weight redesigned part of the exterior to be 'more aerodynamic.' What she got was an armor resistant to archer fire, heavier but also with no speed loss when moving in straight or curved lines. There is a substantial reduction in agility and nimbleness, which may be alleviated with practice."
"Still, it doesn't pay to invest in armor when most blows from an awakened one are lethal. Agility is more important."
"True, but not so much if we have to handle enemy power user's long range attacks. Anyway, I just wanted to use that as an example of what Innovators can do when working together. They can build off each other's designs." I said. I looked around the room. There was interest but still skepticism. I hoped someone else would bring it up, but I would if it was necessary.
"Knowledge Bearers, which they're currently a subclass of also possess that attribute." Gotho brought up.
"True, but knowledge bearers also don't possess a disadvantage that Innovators frequently must struggle with. They can't scale up because their work requires frequent maintenance that non-Innovators can rarely keep up with."
"This may make them more useful, but it's hardly worth the cost of keeping up with their requests and needs for supplies, especially exotic materials like the bones of awakened beings." I saw Rado, who was standing behind Radomel, give a small shiver. Holly's idea would never take off even without the issue of maintenance once one considered what one would have to ask the warriors to wear.
"The Scholars Guild." Said Rimuto.
"Yes, chief. While our own Innovators are unlikely to build anything to change the balance of power we must be careful not to ignore the largest known group of power users, outside of the Saints. The Scholars Guild headquartered in Rabona has been flooded with innovators we've passed up taking, who have also been lured by the lucrative pay. We should not just assume they are an economic power if their two dozen or so Innovators can act as multipliers to each others effectiveness."
"Plus they're aligned against any crusades." Mentioned Radomel. "We won't be able to sap their strength through that."
We moved on from there to discussing the specifics of my proposed class. No revisions to the training program were proposed or passed since this was more about a hypothetical threat. I handed out copies of my report, but no one flipped past the abstract. How irksome.
"And you have no plans to changes our ten point rating system?"
"Yes," I said answering Rimuto's question. He would have known had he read the report. He was clearly more interested in the budget and Dae's project. As fascinating as Dae's work always is sometimes I wish something would eat him. Of course, if something did eat him it would probably be something karmic that would eat all of us.
"Very well. I see nothing to object about it. Any other comments?"
"If we're open to changes I still say we should separate the manipulators from the other commanders. They're potentially more useful, but also a lot more dangerous for our allies." Mentioned Gotho.
"There's more to warning people than giving them a scary title. It's complicated enough and effective countermeasures must be so heavily individualized that it's an issue best tackled with better training or more top down oversight." I countered. I caught Orsay nodding along. I wondered sometimes what he was up to. He agreed a little too readily with some of my ideas. Was always eager to pick up my reports early. He was either my biggest fan or buttering me up for something.
"But it's staining the reputation of the other commanders we try to send. It even makes them harder to ship." Brought up Gotho.
"Their loss is our gain." Said Rimuto with bitter finality.
The 'Commander' title had been picked once when we hoped to make their powers seem more useful to the Central office. It hadn't been effective, and we continued to be marginalized. It must hurt even worse for the chief.
"Alright, then there's one last item on the agenda. Priscilla is still in her prime as number 1, but we must look ahead." Rimuto said with more enthusiasm than he had shown throughout the rest of the meeting. "What sort of graduation test should we use to test the loyalty of Alicia and Beth?"
AN: Sometimes it can be hard to follow all the new characters and factions so I've added a character list, by the way that's also bookmarked.
If you'd like to think about the classification system in worm terms, the Organization has lumped many trumps and Strangers together under collectors. Masters are generally commanders, but some thinkers whose ability carries into leadership would also be considered commanders.
Breakers and movers are split up based upon what range they can fight at. Brawlers generally include brutes and strikers, but may also include support personnel such as teleporters or fliers who help Brawlers get into close combat range. Archers includes blasters and shakers anyone else who fights from a distance.
Much like Commanders they are considered more valuable because more of them can attack at the same time and they tend to survive longer to be re-used. They also may be capable of taking out weaker Dragon-kin before they awaken.
Some masters actually fit might be classified as knowledge bearers if their skills are considered more suited for negotiation and persuasion off the battlefield.
Biotinkers, some trumps and masters with self-replicating minions will fit in the final category of farmers. Despite their name they are the most prized for their perceived long-term potential.
"Have you finished your updates to the catalogue of powers?" Mentioned Radomel as he entered my office.
"Yes, Orsay just came to pick up a copy to look over. By the way, have you heard the rumors coming out of Dae's research pen. I think somebody owes me several drinks given the evidence confirming my theory about the genetic potential of people with powers being unlocked."
"Are you talking about the three children of power holders who have manifested powers of their own?"
"Yes. Moreover, they have similar powers to their parents or grandparent in one case. If Miranda's theory about it being caused by some contagious factor were correct that still wouldn't explain the intrafamily power similarities."
"It could simply be genetics guiding the expression and a contagious factor bringing it out."
"Ahh, waffling already to a composite theory. Yes, that's also a possibility, but it still justifies the Farm." I rubbed in. I knew he had doubts about the Farm, but he needed to bow to necessity. There were worse things.
"Anyway, we're getting off topic. I came here to invite to tell you the council is meeting in an hour." Said Radomel.
"Usual location?"
"Yes. I expect they'll want you to justify your suggested amendments to the power ranking and classification system. Its displeased some of the department heads that you want to revise it again instead of finishing it already and classifying the rest as exceptions or a subclass."
"The Innovators are not a subclass of Knowledge Bearers. I always told Chief Rimuto that it was a mistake to lump them together with the Knowledge Types."
"Fine. Just know this is somewhere between second and third priority for them and they're liable to just use your last draft going forward if you can't justify yourself properly."
***
I entered the council chambers to hear them arguing.
"It was a mistake to plant that male Awakened one next to Saint Lucien." Said Orsay
"It was necessary to maintain our monopoly. The rest of their saints hardly matter since they can't find the Yoma, but Lucien had cleared out the sector." Argued back Gotho.
"Aren't you forgetting Father Damien and Sister Naomi? They're still out there so we still don't have a monopoly, and this just made them double their security and go into hiding."
"They can't be everywhere and hiding has forced them to take fewer jobs." Retorted Gotho who was beginning to look irritated.
"Still, this has only reconfirmed suspicions that have been brewing that we're behind Yoma and Voracious Eaters. As long as our reputation among the populace remains poor and a possible alternative exists some villages will wait until it's too late and face partial or total decimation rather than call upon our services promptly as they did before." As Orsay finished they both lapses into silence.
Left unsaid was another option. The Cleansing Hand was a criminal organization that sought to cleanse the land of the Yoma plague. That's right. They saw it as a plague. Thus, they did not bother with trying to determine the culprit. They divided the families in a village in half and secluded each half. Whichever half continued to have people go missing was executed down to the last child and pet. Even livestock were burned.
It was the incompetence of the uneducated peasant masses on display as usual. Of course, they couldn't come up with a better strategy than half-hearted mercy and half-hearted ruthlessness.
"There's a simple solution. We just need to prop up the other theory floating around. That it's the Northern Army at fault. Increase our support for the crusader faction and they'll take care of themselves." I proposed.
"That's precisely our problem, Fel. We don't have the resources to send further support. Only your district has kept its numbers up. We've been hit by with the dual issues of falling outside support and reduced revenue from our local operations, especially from Mucha. Adding more time between new generations of warriors, is finally has us down to only being able to replenish five sixths of our usual standing forces."
"Not truly an issue. Fewer missions means fewer warriors are needed. Plus fewer warriors mean fewer future awakened beings. Our trainees are covering the rest of the leftover missions." Or at least they were on paper. In the real world, it was a bit more complicated then that.
"Yes, but that's balanced by us having to take fewer awakened being hunts. We've also recently lost track of all of our recruitment agents in the South after the fighting with Elda and the Cleansing Hand ended up creating the briar wall. Until we can afford to send Priscilla over it we have no idea what is going on in a almost a fifth of the land."
"Resources wouldn't fix that problem." Added Orsay. He politely didn't mention Orsay's possible bias.
Rimuto cleared his throat and we all fell silent. "Now that Fel's here let's cease talking of these old issues and concentrate on new ones. But first, where's Dae?"
"Unfortunately, he's begged off attending yet again. He says his current work on the Osiris Project cannot be halted." Said a man with black short rimmed hat. I hadn't seen him before, which probably meant he was not a department head or regional director.
There was some soft mutterings at Dae's behavior before Rimuto chose to move on.
"Very well, Abel. I assume he sent you as his replacement then. The first item of business therefore will be his requested increased to the size of the farm. What results has he attained to justify that?"
I winced. The farm had its critics even in this room, but the payoff more than justified such a long-term investment. Sometimes I feel like my peers have lived too long in this new land. That they're starting to forget what's at stake. Powers didn't solve a single damn problem. It just doubled stakes we're playing for.
"As you no doubt have heard he has managed to induce awakening of powers in three children of powered subjects. All had highly prized powers for the war effort, and no usage of the parasites was necessary for any stage of the process. They are clean for export if we wish, although Dae is requesting at least one remain for the next generation of the farm."
"Does he think we can leverage that for more outside funding? It is cheaper and easier to just scale up our kidnappings to get 3 more useful power users."
"I disagree." Countered Abel. "If you scale up operations they have an increased visibility and they will make all further operations harder in the long run. As it is our informant network is finding it harder and harder to locate fresh power users or 'God-touched.' Many of the kidnapped also are already brainwashed by the church into believing they are actually God-touched and their desire to become saints or crusaders is only going to make it harder to safely transport and use them."
"One last point," he said with a wide grin. "One of the three children from the farm is registering as a level 7.8 farmer. His power has to do with the growth and manipulation of plants. He would be exceedingly hard to safely transport if he'd been kidnapped, but he's been properly trained from birth and will be easy to control."
...this was more impressive than I'd expected. 7.8 was high. Given the usefulness of his ability the promise of more offspring with similar abilities may very well help us compete with the new mainland research institutes.
"I hope he realizes if he gets the money he certainly won't be able to keep the boy."
"An acceptable loss given what he's focusing on. Let the Caiman college focus on finding matches that will give us disposable powered armies. Dae has focused his research on breeding and controlling the expression of powers."
I lifted an eyebrow at that. Six months ago we'd been twisting his arm to not use the twins for his project Osiris focused on giving powers. Was he already pivoting his research agenda?
"If so, it will be a lot easier to sell the mainland on this being the first of more eugenically grown power users. But please Miranda up to give us a report as well. She always offers a fresh perspective." Added Rimuto.
Abel bowed and left. Giving no sign he took it as an implied slight at his boss. If his boss even noticed it would probably only be irritation at losing his "best assistant in decades."
"Very well. Fel, you had a new idea for mobilizing innovators, and are pushing for a modification to make them a separate class again rather than a subclass of knowledge bearers. Explain." Said Rimuto smoothly transitioning.
"Of course, chief. The inspiration for this was seeing Holly scavenge and improve the designs of Elda's salvaged armor."
"You're talking about that chain mail armor she built out of bones and teeth of other awakened, right?" Noted Radomel.
"Yes, it functioned properly as armor but the durability of its joints left something to be desired. Still, the weight is several times lighter than we ever expected. Holly took some of the broken fragments and reforged them into a smaller version. Then filled the hollowed out portions filled with many supporting structures with a liquid gel courtesy of Miranda's latest thermal cell wall designs. Finally, to address the added weight redesigned part of the exterior to be 'more aerodynamic.' What she got was an armor resistant to archer fire, heavier but also with no speed loss when moving in straight or curved lines. There is a substantial reduction in agility and nimbleness, which may be alleviated with practice."
"Still, it doesn't pay to invest in armor when most blows from an awakened one are lethal. Agility is more important."
"True, but not so much if we have to handle enemy power user's long range attacks. Anyway, I just wanted to use that as an example of what Innovators can do when working together. They can build off each other's designs." I said. I looked around the room. There was interest but still skepticism. I hoped someone else would bring it up, but I would if it was necessary.
"Knowledge Bearers, which they're currently a subclass of also possess that attribute." Gotho brought up.
"True, but knowledge bearers also don't possess a disadvantage that Innovators frequently must struggle with. They can't scale up because their work requires frequent maintenance that non-Innovators can rarely keep up with."
"This may make them more useful, but it's hardly worth the cost of keeping up with their requests and needs for supplies, especially exotic materials like the bones of awakened beings." I saw Rado, who was standing behind Radomel, give a small shiver. Holly's idea would never take off even without the issue of maintenance once one considered what one would have to ask the warriors to wear.
"The Scholars Guild." Said Rimuto.
"Yes, chief. While our own Innovators are unlikely to build anything to change the balance of power we must be careful not to ignore the largest known group of power users, outside of the Saints. The Scholars Guild headquartered in Rabona has been flooded with innovators we've passed up taking, who have also been lured by the lucrative pay. We should not just assume they are an economic power if their two dozen or so Innovators can act as multipliers to each others effectiveness."
"Plus they're aligned against any crusades." Mentioned Radomel. "We won't be able to sap their strength through that."
We moved on from there to discussing the specifics of my proposed class. No revisions to the training program were proposed or passed since this was more about a hypothetical threat. I handed out copies of my report, but no one flipped past the abstract. How irksome.
|
Type |
Description |
Usefulness (base power rating modifier) | Types of Special Interest |
| Knowledge Bearer |
Possess unnatural skills, persuasiveness or knowledge. |
(-1, +3 if they can understand artificial or modified life forms) | Seers, knowledge modifiers, tacticians, researchers |
| Innovators | Capability to Build or enhance existing non-biological or chemical technology | (-2 in general, +1 if it relates to flight technology) | Flying innovators, or to a much lesser extent heavy supply transport innovators. |
| Brawlers | Enhanced close combat capabilities. | (+1) | Heavy attackers, or very mobile Brawlers who can carry others. |
| Archers | Enhanced ranged combat capability | (+2) | snipers with more than half a league range. Archers who can work under camouflage |
| Commanders | Enhanced leadership, creation of servants or puppets, or the ability to manipulate enemies. | (+1 in general, +3 for controllable manipulators, -3 for uncontrollable manipulators) | Unsubtle manipulators with obvious limitations, or commanders with minions or puppets that may be upgraded by innovators or farmers. |
| Collectors | Ability to increase their power by gathering, stealing, gifting or redistributing items, powers or energy. | (+1, +4 if their power can scale exponentially) | Those who can act nexuses for the powers of a group, or who can add to the powers of existing power users. |
| Farmers | Ability to manipulate or modify life forms. Also powers that can duplicate or affect the growth of life forms. | (+3, +5 if they can work with Ansarakem bodies) | power modifiers or multipliers. Surgeons or |
"Yes," I said answering Rimuto's question. He would have known had he read the report. He was clearly more interested in the budget and Dae's project. As fascinating as Dae's work always is sometimes I wish something would eat him. Of course, if something did eat him it would probably be something karmic that would eat all of us.
"Very well. I see nothing to object about it. Any other comments?"
"If we're open to changes I still say we should separate the manipulators from the other commanders. They're potentially more useful, but also a lot more dangerous for our allies." Mentioned Gotho.
"There's more to warning people than giving them a scary title. It's complicated enough and effective countermeasures must be so heavily individualized that it's an issue best tackled with better training or more top down oversight." I countered. I caught Orsay nodding along. I wondered sometimes what he was up to. He agreed a little too readily with some of my ideas. Was always eager to pick up my reports early. He was either my biggest fan or buttering me up for something.
"But it's staining the reputation of the other commanders we try to send. It even makes them harder to ship." Brought up Gotho.
"Their loss is our gain." Said Rimuto with bitter finality.
The 'Commander' title had been picked once when we hoped to make their powers seem more useful to the Central office. It hadn't been effective, and we continued to be marginalized. It must hurt even worse for the chief.
"Alright, then there's one last item on the agenda. Priscilla is still in her prime as number 1, but we must look ahead." Rimuto said with more enthusiasm than he had shown throughout the rest of the meeting. "What sort of graduation test should we use to test the loyalty of Alicia and Beth?"
***
AN: Sometimes it can be hard to follow all the new characters and factions so I've added a character list, by the way that's also bookmarked.
If you'd like to think about the classification system in worm terms, the Organization has lumped many trumps and Strangers together under collectors. Masters are generally commanders, but some thinkers whose ability carries into leadership would also be considered commanders.
Breakers and movers are split up based upon what range they can fight at. Brawlers generally include brutes and strikers, but may also include support personnel such as teleporters or fliers who help Brawlers get into close combat range. Archers includes blasters and shakers anyone else who fights from a distance.
Much like Commanders they are considered more valuable because more of them can attack at the same time and they tend to survive longer to be re-used. They also may be capable of taking out weaker Dragon-kin before they awaken.
Some masters actually fit might be classified as knowledge bearers if their skills are considered more suited for negotiation and persuasion off the battlefield.
Biotinkers, some trumps and masters with self-replicating minions will fit in the final category of farmers. Despite their name they are the most prized for their perceived long-term potential.
Last edited:
Satisfaction
brought it back.
Your autocorrect is showing. Replacing Dae with 'Dad'. Is kinda weird.
Otherwise, this is great. Brockton Bay is kind of overused honestly, and given the scale the Entities work on this is entirely plausible.
Otherwise, this is great. Brockton Bay is kind of overused honestly, and given the scale the Entities work on this is entirely plausible.
Chapter 6: Where There's Smoke There's Fire
- Location
- CA
Chapter 6: Where There's Smoke There's Fire
It's been two trying years. As time has gone on the training has morphed further and further from the standard when Teresa went through it.
I feel as if it's being rushed now. We have begun taking missions outside in groups of four. If three or two or one come back we'll be reorganized and sent out next time in a new group of four. The generation ahead of us is already going out in pairs. The one before that has been sorted with half having already been slotted into the ranks to replace fallen warriors. There were few enough survivors that they did not even choose to hold a final exam.
We never go far outside the Western lands. I suspect that since the roster of active warriors has shrunk to 40 the district's have been reorganized and advanced trainees now handle some of the missions that warriors 41-47 would have done.
Today we headed to the village of Crannog.
"I wonder if they'll have decent booze." Said Elise, who was carrying two pigmy boars in a sack over her shoulders. We weren't paid by the Organization, but we could often barter meat or heavy physical labor for some simple luxuries when we went out.
"Probably not, you know they raise mostly maize around here. The best booze comes from the West or South's fields." Mentioned Evelyn. She was the smallest of us, but her speed was almost as fast as Jacklyn's and she had the best senses.
"Bah, it doesn't matter what you make it out of. Even if they don't have imports it's all about the heart that goes into it." Retorted Elise with a chest thump.
Me and Jacklyn stayed out of it. Jacklyn had been out of sorts ever since she heard the south was temporarily cutoff. I figured she must have come from there, but didn't know how to ask.
Personally I didn't think booze was worth the cost and effort. My own guilty pleasures are persimmons and a pendant of Teresa and Clare I wanted. Unfortunately, I could only stop by to look at it occasionally when business brought us through Toriro. I'd saved up for it but it still wasn't quite enough. The organization probably won't want me wearing it in public too. Will the shopkeeper even accept me as a customer.
It's depressing when I add it all up, but wearing the same thing as everyone else. Fighting in the same manner. The only differentiating factor being our hairstyles...it drives me crazy. It didn't help that my nickname was still "The Daydreamer."
***
When we got to Crannog the village surprisingly had a wooden stockade fence. Not tall, and no obstacle to leap over, but it would probably be rude to just ignore it and leap over it. We hailed the gate, but no one answered.
"Think they're not at home?" Wondered Evelyn.
"It's a whole village. Someone has to be inside. Maybe the gatekeeper took a potty break." Added Elise with a giggle.
"I think we should wait another half hour. If they don't let us in at that point we can reassess." Said Jacklyn seriously.
We agreed and settled down. Jacklyn was the strongest of us, after all, and we all expected her to jump straight into the twenties if she survived another year. It was natural for her to be our leader.
After a half hour we were all frustrated.
"Over the wall?"
"Yup." Said Jacklyn as started her jump.
I took a running jump and managed to make it up, but Evelyn just missed the top and failed to grasp a handhold.
"Need some help, shrimp?" Teased Elise.
"Shut up." Responded Evelyn as she threw her sword up first and then made her leap.
Inside the town was quiet.
"Creepy ghost town, eh?"
"Hmm."
There was one strong Yoma, which Evelyn confirmed. It felt.. murky somehow, but we knew it was near the center of town.
We didn't go immediately there, but instead hunted for the town leader. We saw several elderly and one woman but they all turned around the second they saw us. We did not chase them. We found the village head, despite no one offering directions, in the nicest house in the village.
"We've been sent by the Organization following your request for a yoma extermination."
"Yes, thank you, for coming." He said with irritation. "The payment is ready."
"Then give it to a man wearing all black who will come by this evening." Said Jacklyn.
"Where is everyone else?" I couldn't resist asking. I had half expected to find all the children and young parents in the village sheltering together in his house.
"Many have packed up and left. The new city Saintshold was luring away every second son and small landholder even before this mess." He said stiffly.
"Upset they're abandoning you?" Said Elise with a cruel smile.
He scowled. "Don't be ridiculous. I sent my own son and grandchildren off yesterday. A better life for them, I hope. It's your fees that's the problem. Even discounted, with fewer heads to spread the costs among you're sucking this town dry."
I was...less than sympathetic. They should be glad they're not going to be eaten after today. How can gold compare to the value of ones life?
"We'll take our leave then."
After that hunting for the Yoma was almost anti-climactic. I'd probably have spent the day wandering around in a shrinking spiraling pattern until he was in close enough range that I could nail down his location.
Evelyn took us slowly but surely straight to his house after a few course corrections.
"There's still something wrong. Maybe it's a voracious eater." She said from 3 houses back.
"I don't feel anything. But if it's a voracious one then bring it on. There's four of us." Said Elise.
I rather doubt it would go that smoothly. But the thought of facing an awakened being sent a frission of energy down my back. If it came down to it I was a lot stronger than I showed. I wasn't a match for Jacklyn yet, but I had taken to holding back my best moves in spars. I didn't want to be placed on a weaker team or pushed to graduate sooner.
"I'm up for challenging it." I said simply.
"You're both crazy." Said Jacklyn with a frown. "We're no match for a true Awakened Being." She seemed to realize what she'd said a moment too late and slapped a hand across her mouth.
Evelyn and I glanced around for onlookers but there were none. I relaxed.
"I mean a 'voracious eater' would take us apart without a single digit. This is a team to fight Yomas not fight a 'voracious eater.'"
We discussed our options some more. We couldn't just call off the job, and this was hardly enough to make a request for reinforcements. None of us wanted to go back into solitary cells when we returned, and they probably wouldn't even send help if we asked and delayed. After all, if we died that was only to be expected of trainees. We were disposable.
I froze. "It's stirring." Whispered Evelyn.
"Let's go ladies. The Yoma has made the choice for us. We can't afford to let it escape." Said Jacklyn.
"Maybe it actually will turn out to just be older and bulkier than usual." Said a jovial Elise as she practically skipped down the road to fight a man-eating monster.
The townhouse was three stories tall. It looked no richer or poorer than the ones around it, but only the buildings near the center of the village were built three stories tall.
"Evelyn, take point. Elise guard our rear. Clare you're with me."
Elise looked disappointed, but it was the right call. Evelyn was not only the smallest target but one of the fastest, not to mention she'd probably detect anything hiding first.
We came in hard. Evelyn knocked down a door. Elise almost following the plan except going through a window a step after. We found him in the living room, in a closet under the stairs. His fingers shot out of it already sharpened into razor-like claws. They were dodged by Evelyn. A second set headed towards me, which I side-stepped before heading in to flank the closet from the left side. I was a step behind Jacklyn, though, who leapt up and barely avoided clipping the ceiling by curling her spine. Then she stabbed down through the stairs. Her Yoki sense accurately guided her blow that drew dark blackish blood.
"Smack."
I turned around to see Elise thrown against a wall. Her sword arm missing from the elbow.
Evelyn reacted first and threw her blade at the attacker. A second later and he would have finished the disarmed warrior.
The second Yoma jumped back.
"Help them Clare." Screamed Jacklyn. Her sword seemed stuck and it didn't feel like the first Yoma was completely dead, but I trusted her.
If the Yoma had been smarter it would have ran. It would have ran before we even arrived at the town. As soon as word went around about hiring "Claymores" some Yoma will flee. If the town is already clean and the Yoma does not come back the Organization will receive half pay on the job.
This Yoma chose to run after ambushing us.
Me and Evelyn caught up to it before it had managed to make it more than one house away. I went low and she went high. It turned around at the last minute. Maybe it sensed us. Its final attack on me was intercepted with a blow to the head converted to a slash that bisected his arm.
It could do nothing to stop Evelyn. She bisected him horizontally at the waist as she ran past him, and then stopped herself and thrust her sword behind her. It impaled his head through the back of his deformed cranium.
The monster did not even manage any last words.
When we got back Elise was using 30% of her youki and had begun attaching her severed limb. Reconnecting the tissues would probably take a couple more minutes.
Jacklyn had hacked the Yoma into pieces along with the stairs and closet.
"How did it go for you?" Asked Evelyn.
"Not hard. As soon as it got injured, I felt it swell with fear. I magnified that and squelched its hope as well as anger at being injured. It didn't put up much of a fight after that." She said. Once the opponent was within her range a 1vs1 with Jacklyn was a usually a curbstomp.
"Me and Clare ran down the other one in streets and I got it across the waist and slammed it home until I could see daylight through his skull." Pronounced Evelyn cheerfully.
I wish she wouldn't marginalize my own contribution, but it's not worth making a fuss.
"Alright. Then let's report back to the village head after Elise finishes. He can bury the bodies or leave it for our handler."
We found out when we reported back to the head and told him what the townhouse looked like that the place we'd fought him had a pair of men, twins, who hadn't left town. Even their severed heads looked similar.
It might have explained the issue we had sensing them. We'd picked up one strong Youki aura instead of two very similar ones. Elise recovered her cheer quickly until she found out the town's bars were closed. One owner had left for Saintshold. The other was dead.
Still, when he saw how disappointed Elise was he nervously offered us a bit of his own stock in exchange for her catch she'd hunted.
His condition, though, was she drink it outside of town.
Our business was over and the remaining villagers were still avoiding us, so we made a quick exit.
"Ahh, this hits the spot." Declared a buzzed Elise.
"You inhaled that like it was water. Did you even taste it?" Pondered Evelyn as she held Elise's empty flask upside down.
"A connoisseur can taste things regardless of how fast or slow she goes. Besides, a warrior's youki sense isn't the only sense enhanced by the process. From what I've heard bedtime games among us can also blow your mind."
"Eww, get your mind out of the gutter, you drunkard."
Ten minutes later she proved the merit of her words. A breeze blew by carrying a hint of ash.
"Did you guys smell that too?" Asked Elise. Evelyn didn't but me and Jacklyn agreed.
All it took was for us to look up and glance behind us. A thin crooked line of smoke was making its way upward from the direction we had come from.
Also, the biggest challenge for trainee teams is not actually the combat. Four trainees can definitely take on Yoma if they can find them. The issue is that their yoma sensing is still weak, and that doesn't stack like combat power just because you have four of them.
Other teams that don't have as good of a sensor as Evelyn will end up pairing off and probably looking for Yoma in pairs, so don't think of Evelyn's performance this chapter as underwhelming. The organization tries to assemble balanced trainee teams with one good sensor and balanced combat capability, but the team's grow less balanced over time as they take casualties and reform with survivors.
It's been two trying years. As time has gone on the training has morphed further and further from the standard when Teresa went through it.
I feel as if it's being rushed now. We have begun taking missions outside in groups of four. If three or two or one come back we'll be reorganized and sent out next time in a new group of four. The generation ahead of us is already going out in pairs. The one before that has been sorted with half having already been slotted into the ranks to replace fallen warriors. There were few enough survivors that they did not even choose to hold a final exam.
We never go far outside the Western lands. I suspect that since the roster of active warriors has shrunk to 40 the district's have been reorganized and advanced trainees now handle some of the missions that warriors 41-47 would have done.
Today we headed to the village of Crannog.
"I wonder if they'll have decent booze." Said Elise, who was carrying two pigmy boars in a sack over her shoulders. We weren't paid by the Organization, but we could often barter meat or heavy physical labor for some simple luxuries when we went out.
"Probably not, you know they raise mostly maize around here. The best booze comes from the West or South's fields." Mentioned Evelyn. She was the smallest of us, but her speed was almost as fast as Jacklyn's and she had the best senses.
"Bah, it doesn't matter what you make it out of. Even if they don't have imports it's all about the heart that goes into it." Retorted Elise with a chest thump.
Me and Jacklyn stayed out of it. Jacklyn had been out of sorts ever since she heard the south was temporarily cutoff. I figured she must have come from there, but didn't know how to ask.
Personally I didn't think booze was worth the cost and effort. My own guilty pleasures are persimmons and a pendant of Teresa and Clare I wanted. Unfortunately, I could only stop by to look at it occasionally when business brought us through Toriro. I'd saved up for it but it still wasn't quite enough. The organization probably won't want me wearing it in public too. Will the shopkeeper even accept me as a customer.
It's depressing when I add it all up, but wearing the same thing as everyone else. Fighting in the same manner. The only differentiating factor being our hairstyles...it drives me crazy. It didn't help that my nickname was still "The Daydreamer."
***
When we got to Crannog the village surprisingly had a wooden stockade fence. Not tall, and no obstacle to leap over, but it would probably be rude to just ignore it and leap over it. We hailed the gate, but no one answered.
"Think they're not at home?" Wondered Evelyn.
"It's a whole village. Someone has to be inside. Maybe the gatekeeper took a potty break." Added Elise with a giggle.
"I think we should wait another half hour. If they don't let us in at that point we can reassess." Said Jacklyn seriously.
We agreed and settled down. Jacklyn was the strongest of us, after all, and we all expected her to jump straight into the twenties if she survived another year. It was natural for her to be our leader.
After a half hour we were all frustrated.
"Over the wall?"
"Yup." Said Jacklyn as started her jump.
I took a running jump and managed to make it up, but Evelyn just missed the top and failed to grasp a handhold.
"Need some help, shrimp?" Teased Elise.
"Shut up." Responded Evelyn as she threw her sword up first and then made her leap.
Inside the town was quiet.
"Creepy ghost town, eh?"
"Hmm."
There was one strong Yoma, which Evelyn confirmed. It felt.. murky somehow, but we knew it was near the center of town.
We didn't go immediately there, but instead hunted for the town leader. We saw several elderly and one woman but they all turned around the second they saw us. We did not chase them. We found the village head, despite no one offering directions, in the nicest house in the village.
"We've been sent by the Organization following your request for a yoma extermination."
"Yes, thank you, for coming." He said with irritation. "The payment is ready."
"Then give it to a man wearing all black who will come by this evening." Said Jacklyn.
"Where is everyone else?" I couldn't resist asking. I had half expected to find all the children and young parents in the village sheltering together in his house.
"Many have packed up and left. The new city Saintshold was luring away every second son and small landholder even before this mess." He said stiffly.
"Upset they're abandoning you?" Said Elise with a cruel smile.
He scowled. "Don't be ridiculous. I sent my own son and grandchildren off yesterday. A better life for them, I hope. It's your fees that's the problem. Even discounted, with fewer heads to spread the costs among you're sucking this town dry."
I was...less than sympathetic. They should be glad they're not going to be eaten after today. How can gold compare to the value of ones life?
"We'll take our leave then."
After that hunting for the Yoma was almost anti-climactic. I'd probably have spent the day wandering around in a shrinking spiraling pattern until he was in close enough range that I could nail down his location.
Evelyn took us slowly but surely straight to his house after a few course corrections.
"There's still something wrong. Maybe it's a voracious eater." She said from 3 houses back.
"I don't feel anything. But if it's a voracious one then bring it on. There's four of us." Said Elise.
I rather doubt it would go that smoothly. But the thought of facing an awakened being sent a frission of energy down my back. If it came down to it I was a lot stronger than I showed. I wasn't a match for Jacklyn yet, but I had taken to holding back my best moves in spars. I didn't want to be placed on a weaker team or pushed to graduate sooner.
"I'm up for challenging it." I said simply.
"You're both crazy." Said Jacklyn with a frown. "We're no match for a true Awakened Being." She seemed to realize what she'd said a moment too late and slapped a hand across her mouth.
Evelyn and I glanced around for onlookers but there were none. I relaxed.
"I mean a 'voracious eater' would take us apart without a single digit. This is a team to fight Yomas not fight a 'voracious eater.'"
We discussed our options some more. We couldn't just call off the job, and this was hardly enough to make a request for reinforcements. None of us wanted to go back into solitary cells when we returned, and they probably wouldn't even send help if we asked and delayed. After all, if we died that was only to be expected of trainees. We were disposable.
I froze. "It's stirring." Whispered Evelyn.
"Let's go ladies. The Yoma has made the choice for us. We can't afford to let it escape." Said Jacklyn.
"Maybe it actually will turn out to just be older and bulkier than usual." Said a jovial Elise as she practically skipped down the road to fight a man-eating monster.
The townhouse was three stories tall. It looked no richer or poorer than the ones around it, but only the buildings near the center of the village were built three stories tall.
"Evelyn, take point. Elise guard our rear. Clare you're with me."
Elise looked disappointed, but it was the right call. Evelyn was not only the smallest target but one of the fastest, not to mention she'd probably detect anything hiding first.
We came in hard. Evelyn knocked down a door. Elise almost following the plan except going through a window a step after. We found him in the living room, in a closet under the stairs. His fingers shot out of it already sharpened into razor-like claws. They were dodged by Evelyn. A second set headed towards me, which I side-stepped before heading in to flank the closet from the left side. I was a step behind Jacklyn, though, who leapt up and barely avoided clipping the ceiling by curling her spine. Then she stabbed down through the stairs. Her Yoki sense accurately guided her blow that drew dark blackish blood.
"Smack."
I turned around to see Elise thrown against a wall. Her sword arm missing from the elbow.
Evelyn reacted first and threw her blade at the attacker. A second later and he would have finished the disarmed warrior.
The second Yoma jumped back.
"Help them Clare." Screamed Jacklyn. Her sword seemed stuck and it didn't feel like the first Yoma was completely dead, but I trusted her.
If the Yoma had been smarter it would have ran. It would have ran before we even arrived at the town. As soon as word went around about hiring "Claymores" some Yoma will flee. If the town is already clean and the Yoma does not come back the Organization will receive half pay on the job.
This Yoma chose to run after ambushing us.
Me and Evelyn caught up to it before it had managed to make it more than one house away. I went low and she went high. It turned around at the last minute. Maybe it sensed us. Its final attack on me was intercepted with a blow to the head converted to a slash that bisected his arm.
It could do nothing to stop Evelyn. She bisected him horizontally at the waist as she ran past him, and then stopped herself and thrust her sword behind her. It impaled his head through the back of his deformed cranium.
The monster did not even manage any last words.
When we got back Elise was using 30% of her youki and had begun attaching her severed limb. Reconnecting the tissues would probably take a couple more minutes.
Jacklyn had hacked the Yoma into pieces along with the stairs and closet.
"How did it go for you?" Asked Evelyn.
"Not hard. As soon as it got injured, I felt it swell with fear. I magnified that and squelched its hope as well as anger at being injured. It didn't put up much of a fight after that." She said. Once the opponent was within her range a 1vs1 with Jacklyn was a usually a curbstomp.
"Me and Clare ran down the other one in streets and I got it across the waist and slammed it home until I could see daylight through his skull." Pronounced Evelyn cheerfully.
I wish she wouldn't marginalize my own contribution, but it's not worth making a fuss.
"Alright. Then let's report back to the village head after Elise finishes. He can bury the bodies or leave it for our handler."
We found out when we reported back to the head and told him what the townhouse looked like that the place we'd fought him had a pair of men, twins, who hadn't left town. Even their severed heads looked similar.
It might have explained the issue we had sensing them. We'd picked up one strong Youki aura instead of two very similar ones. Elise recovered her cheer quickly until she found out the town's bars were closed. One owner had left for Saintshold. The other was dead.
Still, when he saw how disappointed Elise was he nervously offered us a bit of his own stock in exchange for her catch she'd hunted.
His condition, though, was she drink it outside of town.
Our business was over and the remaining villagers were still avoiding us, so we made a quick exit.
"Ahh, this hits the spot." Declared a buzzed Elise.
"You inhaled that like it was water. Did you even taste it?" Pondered Evelyn as she held Elise's empty flask upside down.
"A connoisseur can taste things regardless of how fast or slow she goes. Besides, a warrior's youki sense isn't the only sense enhanced by the process. From what I've heard bedtime games among us can also blow your mind."
"Eww, get your mind out of the gutter, you drunkard."
Ten minutes later she proved the merit of her words. A breeze blew by carrying a hint of ash.
"Did you guys smell that too?" Asked Elise. Evelyn didn't but me and Jacklyn agreed.
All it took was for us to look up and glance behind us. A thin crooked line of smoke was making its way upward from the direction we had come from.
«***»
Author's Note: All the Warriors in this chapter are around 12-14, so Elise is drinking way underage. Or rather she'd be underage if there were minimum age drinking laws.
Also, the biggest challenge for trainee teams is not actually the combat. Four trainees can definitely take on Yoma if they can find them. The issue is that their yoma sensing is still weak, and that doesn't stack like combat power just because you have four of them.
Other teams that don't have as good of a sensor as Evelyn will end up pairing off and probably looking for Yoma in pairs, so don't think of Evelyn's performance this chapter as underwhelming. The organization tries to assemble balanced trainee teams with one good sensor and balanced combat capability, but the team's grow less balanced over time as they take casualties and reform with survivors.
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Chapter 7: Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire
- Location
- CA
Chapter 7: Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire
"Damn it."
"Morel might be in the middle of that. Do you really want to appear partially drunk if we have to pulls his butt out of that." Said Jacklyn as we continued running.
She'd ordered Elise to step up her regeneration to clear the alcohol from her system.
It was an hour before sunset. Morel didn't have a set schedule for when he did pick-ups but it was entirely possible he was in the middle of that.
"What about the townspeople?" Asked Evelyn tentatively.
"What about those ungrateful jerks." Said Elise.
I felt my mouth tighten at that prospect. The townspeople hadn't been particularly bad here, but the fire brought up and memories. Not all of them from my days as a part human yoma-hunter.
There had been fire that day. When Teresa returned and saved me from the Tainted Militia. It was a bandit group run by power users who unabashedly played up the belief that special powers were a curse rather than a blessing. People had been all too willing to believe anything supernatural must be related to the Yoma, and that fear helped them until they ran into Teresa.
"If we get involved people may think the Organization was involved. They may even blame us for any deaths. That would be a death sentence." I said. The rule after all was more about perception than truth. For example, a warrior who the bodies well may never be held accountable. But one who was publicly accused of it might be treated as guilty without even being able to speak out in her defense.
We fell silent.
"Agreed. We get in there and pull out Morel. If the fire is contained enough that there won't be casualties then we can consider pitching in." She said with a glare at Elise who looked like she wanted to interrupt. "But otherwise we stay out. We aren't designed to fight fires anyway. We're made to fight monsters." Said Jacklyn with an air of finality.
The air stank as we drew closer. The lines of smoke thickening and darkening into curling fingers in the sky that beckoned us closer. It did not look like the fire was contained.
***
It was worse than we imagined. We took to jumping rooftops while I did my best to predict where groups of the Cleansing Hand were. With my power I threaded us through the weak points in their encirclement of the town, but we inevitably were spotted. They attacked us with archers wielding some new type of bow they loaded with their feet. It forced us to abandon the rooftops for better cover.
"Damn, Morel for letting himself get captured. I wonder if they give the handlers Prisoner and Interrogation Training like they gave us." Said Elise.
"Probably not." Muttered Evelyn.
We'd broken a window and were hiding inside a house. The fires hadn't spread here, but we needed a plan.
"When I was up on the roofs I saw the city square which was filled with a dozen members of the Cleansing Hand." I said. "Moreover, it felt like the only way we were likely to get in there safely was by stealth, disguise or if we're captured."
"Those choices. Boy, we're in for it. They must have at least one power-user over there, and since we're constrained from killing humans we might not be able to get to Morel. Is it really our fault if he gets hanged here?"
No one responded to Elise. I was beginning to wish we'd never turned around. If we hadn't maybe we could have pretended to have missed the whole thing.
"Number 13." Said Jacklyn. "We can't run."
Number 13 held a useful Knowledge-type power, so she was generally consulted for investigations when someone important dies. Somehow she'd figure out everything that happened.
"Alright, the first thing we need is a distraction. If the men in the square can get reinforcements this goes from nasty to suicidal." Said Jacklyn. "I'll head to the village head's house or track him down if he's not there. Try to 'rescue' him and kick up enough of a fuss that they all start heading to me. I can outrun them, but stay just near enough they keep chasing."
Something about her words was problematic. I concentrated harder but couldn't get it. Then I noticed her hand tremble.
"You're not going to hold back if you get cornered." I saw it then. If I wanted to dispose of this rival all I would have to do is put her against a serious obstacle in this next fight. A power user or an encouragement of archers. She was already itchifor battle and a part of her didn't care if it would mean she'd become an enemy of the Organization.
"This is fucked up. If they're going to kill you over what you have to do then we should just abandon Morel. The men can choke to death on their fuckin' rules. I'll take my six months of isolation. Thank you very much." Said Elise sarcastically.
Evelyn twitched nervously. I heard calling outside. It was closer.
"We won't just get an isolation cell or reduced rations. They'll probably switch to sending us out in pairs right away for missions. They may also increase our mission load." Said Jacklyn.
A delayed death sentence. Technically, our profession was a delayed death sentence, but in pairs the casualty rate would be much higher. Could any pair of us have done the mission we did earlier today without casualties? The second one would have gotten the jump on us and probably killed whoever they ambushed. Even if Jacklyn killed the first one quickly enough for it to not become a 2v1 situation there would still be at least one casualty.
"I think we should stay closer together." I said. "It will make it easier to withdraw. All we need to do is make a good faith effort to free him, and if they push us back we can tell number 13 we tried." I said.
It was a balanced approach.
We planned a bit more and then left in two pairs. Jacklyn and me followed by Elise and Evelyn.
***
"You never speak much." Mentioned Jacklyn as we headed to the square where Morel was being held. We had the longer route since I was more likely to be able to safely guide us around problems.
"What's there to say. Besides, you're not too talkative either." I whispered. With our hearing we didn't need to hold the conversation above a whisper.
"I know. But you take it further. I just find myself wondering before we head in there what's behind your stoic mask."
From the alley I leapt up to a second story window. With a sharp shove I broke the window lock and got in just as Jacklyn followed on my heels. As we moved to the other side of the building I answered her question.
"You fight without fear because ever since your powers awoke you've never felt fear. Your eyes unconsciously drift south some days. As if you're missing something down there. When we camp at night you want to break out into song sometimes. If you weren't insecure about your voice you would. I can see all of these things. My power also tells me how to use them against you. How to dig the knife deep and twist it."
We were coming up on the square. A few more buildings and then we just had to flare our youki in the right pattern to signal we were ready. The other two would decide on when to begin since they would be attacking from the front.
"You don't do that though." Said Jacklyn distracting me. "Is it tough to resist?"
"No. If I got distracted or obssessed thinking about that my power would tell me that was a weakness in myself, and how an enemy could use it to take me down." I said. Honestly, right now my power was saying I may be giving away too much. I squelched it before thinking more about it. I hated when it was right.
I decided if she was going to dig up my secrets I should go after a few of hers. "Can I ask you, Jacklyn, something about your power?"
"Oh, sure. I guess that's fair."
"I've always wondered why your range is everything you can touch or touch with your sword. It's as if your power considers your sword part of your body. Is that right?"
"Yeah. It didn't use to be that way, but either practice or my thinking has changed enough for it to work like that."
"One more thing," I said as I gauged she was open to me pushing a little further. "Does your power's effect really wear off that quickly or do you let it wear off during spars?"
She paused longer. We finally found a position on a flat rooftop that shouldn't expose us. We were a little farther than I'd like, but I didn't feel like we could get closer without risking detection.
"I undo the effect." She said meeting my eyes. "Don't spread it around, though."
She flared her youki twice in a very rapid interval. Then we both suppressed ours as much as possible.
***
When Elise and Evelyn chose to make an entrance they really made an entrance. Despite using the flat of their blades the bodies of enemies were strewn left and right.
"Let's go." Said Jacklyn.
We attacked from behind as soon as they got everyone's attention. With full speed we rushed forward and got to Morel's side. We didn't even bother engaging the men around him. We just grabbed him and tried to run.
Unfortunately, one of those men turned out to be a so-called "God-touched." He raised his hand and fire from nearby leapt at us. The fire took the form of lizards, but their bodies were intangible flames.
Before they could get within a dozen meters of us Jacklyn tapped him with her blade. He went down and curled up into a ball. The flames also curled up into balls, and changed their target from us to him. As we retreated they began circling him.
Unfortunately, he was not the only "god-touched" there. Elise and Evelyn were attacked by reinforcements. This time they shot arrows with ropes attached to them. None struck home.
Evelyn later told me she saw a lump move along the shadow of one of the ropes. They avoided it, of course, but it settled in Elise's shadow.
Next thing they knew a blade had sprung from Elise's shadow and pierced deep into her gut. Evelyn tried to cut off the arm that held that blade, but it retracted into the shadow before she could reach it.
Me and Jacklyn had pulled back out of the immediate vicinity of the battle, but were keeping watch. When Jacklyn saw Elise sprout a sword from her belly she left Morel with me to rush towards Elise.
When he tried to transfer to Evelyn's shadow Elise stomped on him. It didn't do any damage but he was reabsorbed into her shadow.
I finally got a look at him and shouted to use the fires and to apply it to her shadow.
They heard me but so did the archers and other swordsman. I had to grab Morel and start running. With only one of us carrying Morel, though, I found I difficult to shake them off.
By the time Jacklyn and Evelyn caught up me and Morel had been nearly cornered twice. We retreated, and then tended to Morel and Evelyn's injuries.
Elise was not with them.
***
I was staring at the campfire. Evelyn's wounds had been light. Only a stray arrow that caught her from a blind spot. Morel was resting and had been badly tortured. As much as we hated the necessity of the Organization we also couldn't help sympathizing when we saw those wounds. They had both been put to bed already.
"What are you thinking about?" Jacklyn asked me. She should have been resting too. I had taken the early watch, but she would have to be up for the rest of the night. Neither of us wanted to let Evelyn take a shift, even though she was up for it.
"I was thinking about what would have happened if you'd been able to shove a torch into Elise's shadow?" I said, which was true enough.
"I don't think it would have made a difference. Elise was an offensive warrior, and he got her straight through her intestines and stomach. He may even have hit her kidneys or liver."
"It might have been a woman," I noted. I didn't disagree with her conclusion, though.
Sometimes I hated knowing as much about our bodies and anatomy as we did. It helped with regeneration and even with knowing where you can and can't take a hit. Still, I could see her spread out like a cadaver. The drone of a bored retrieval squad member pointing out every part inside her.
"If only we'd pushed for more scouting. I might have been able to pick up the power users and noted their weaknesses ahead of time."
"It wouldn't have mattered. Do you think those two were just paired up by chance? If we carried torches the flame manipulator would have made the flames come alive and attack us."
I realized she was right. My power was great at putting together weaknesses, but if I didn't see them together, I would have assumed the weaknesses of the individuals were the same as the weaknesses of the group.
I fell back. I let my back hit the ground and stared up at the stars. I was a shit night guard too.
"Hey Clare."
"Yes."
"If you ever want to talk, even about my weaknesses or faults feel free to do so." She said. I looked at her. She was dusting imaginary dirt off of her thighs, but when she seemed my eyes on her she met my eyes without hesitation.
"It would probably do me some good." She continued. "Especially if your analysis helps me improve in my leadership. You know, being strong doesn't just automatically make someone a better leader." She said teasingly.
"You're a good leader." I said, and I meant it. I turned back to the stars.
"Jacklyn, if you ever want to sing then I'd like to hear you. If you sound awful, though, I'll honestly tell you about all the ways you stink."
Nothing attacked us that night except a bit of awful singing near dawn.
***
When we got back to Staff they took our report and Morel away. A week later, Lily was assigned to our team and after half a week of training we were sent out again with a new handler, who stayed much closer to us.
Less than a month later he told us that the Organization had revised the code of rules for us hybrids. It was now acceptable to kill human enemies of the Organization as long as it was either in self-defense or in the defense of one of the members of the Organization.
AN: The original title for this chapter was "A Last Drink" but I decided it was too spoilery.
Shadow Sword user got away. He's not as fast as the warriors, and probably freaked out when Clare started talking about throwing around fire. Technically, fire wouldn't have burned him, but using it to stretch the shadow he's in would have pushed him out of his physics breaking form and exposed him to physical attack.
"Damn it."
"Morel might be in the middle of that. Do you really want to appear partially drunk if we have to pulls his butt out of that." Said Jacklyn as we continued running.
She'd ordered Elise to step up her regeneration to clear the alcohol from her system.
It was an hour before sunset. Morel didn't have a set schedule for when he did pick-ups but it was entirely possible he was in the middle of that.
"What about the townspeople?" Asked Evelyn tentatively.
"What about those ungrateful jerks." Said Elise.
I felt my mouth tighten at that prospect. The townspeople hadn't been particularly bad here, but the fire brought up and memories. Not all of them from my days as a part human yoma-hunter.
There had been fire that day. When Teresa returned and saved me from the Tainted Militia. It was a bandit group run by power users who unabashedly played up the belief that special powers were a curse rather than a blessing. People had been all too willing to believe anything supernatural must be related to the Yoma, and that fear helped them until they ran into Teresa.
"If we get involved people may think the Organization was involved. They may even blame us for any deaths. That would be a death sentence." I said. The rule after all was more about perception than truth. For example, a warrior who the bodies well may never be held accountable. But one who was publicly accused of it might be treated as guilty without even being able to speak out in her defense.
We fell silent.
"Agreed. We get in there and pull out Morel. If the fire is contained enough that there won't be casualties then we can consider pitching in." She said with a glare at Elise who looked like she wanted to interrupt. "But otherwise we stay out. We aren't designed to fight fires anyway. We're made to fight monsters." Said Jacklyn with an air of finality.
The air stank as we drew closer. The lines of smoke thickening and darkening into curling fingers in the sky that beckoned us closer. It did not look like the fire was contained.
***
It was worse than we imagined. We took to jumping rooftops while I did my best to predict where groups of the Cleansing Hand were. With my power I threaded us through the weak points in their encirclement of the town, but we inevitably were spotted. They attacked us with archers wielding some new type of bow they loaded with their feet. It forced us to abandon the rooftops for better cover.
"Damn, Morel for letting himself get captured. I wonder if they give the handlers Prisoner and Interrogation Training like they gave us." Said Elise.
"Probably not." Muttered Evelyn.
We'd broken a window and were hiding inside a house. The fires hadn't spread here, but we needed a plan.
"When I was up on the roofs I saw the city square which was filled with a dozen members of the Cleansing Hand." I said. "Moreover, it felt like the only way we were likely to get in there safely was by stealth, disguise or if we're captured."
"Those choices. Boy, we're in for it. They must have at least one power-user over there, and since we're constrained from killing humans we might not be able to get to Morel. Is it really our fault if he gets hanged here?"
No one responded to Elise. I was beginning to wish we'd never turned around. If we hadn't maybe we could have pretended to have missed the whole thing.
"Number 13." Said Jacklyn. "We can't run."
Number 13 held a useful Knowledge-type power, so she was generally consulted for investigations when someone important dies. Somehow she'd figure out everything that happened.
"Alright, the first thing we need is a distraction. If the men in the square can get reinforcements this goes from nasty to suicidal." Said Jacklyn. "I'll head to the village head's house or track him down if he's not there. Try to 'rescue' him and kick up enough of a fuss that they all start heading to me. I can outrun them, but stay just near enough they keep chasing."
Something about her words was problematic. I concentrated harder but couldn't get it. Then I noticed her hand tremble.
"You're not going to hold back if you get cornered." I saw it then. If I wanted to dispose of this rival all I would have to do is put her against a serious obstacle in this next fight. A power user or an encouragement of archers. She was already itchifor battle and a part of her didn't care if it would mean she'd become an enemy of the Organization.
"This is fucked up. If they're going to kill you over what you have to do then we should just abandon Morel. The men can choke to death on their fuckin' rules. I'll take my six months of isolation. Thank you very much." Said Elise sarcastically.
Evelyn twitched nervously. I heard calling outside. It was closer.
"We won't just get an isolation cell or reduced rations. They'll probably switch to sending us out in pairs right away for missions. They may also increase our mission load." Said Jacklyn.
A delayed death sentence. Technically, our profession was a delayed death sentence, but in pairs the casualty rate would be much higher. Could any pair of us have done the mission we did earlier today without casualties? The second one would have gotten the jump on us and probably killed whoever they ambushed. Even if Jacklyn killed the first one quickly enough for it to not become a 2v1 situation there would still be at least one casualty.
"I think we should stay closer together." I said. "It will make it easier to withdraw. All we need to do is make a good faith effort to free him, and if they push us back we can tell number 13 we tried." I said.
It was a balanced approach.
We planned a bit more and then left in two pairs. Jacklyn and me followed by Elise and Evelyn.
***
"You never speak much." Mentioned Jacklyn as we headed to the square where Morel was being held. We had the longer route since I was more likely to be able to safely guide us around problems.
"What's there to say. Besides, you're not too talkative either." I whispered. With our hearing we didn't need to hold the conversation above a whisper.
"I know. But you take it further. I just find myself wondering before we head in there what's behind your stoic mask."
From the alley I leapt up to a second story window. With a sharp shove I broke the window lock and got in just as Jacklyn followed on my heels. As we moved to the other side of the building I answered her question.
"You fight without fear because ever since your powers awoke you've never felt fear. Your eyes unconsciously drift south some days. As if you're missing something down there. When we camp at night you want to break out into song sometimes. If you weren't insecure about your voice you would. I can see all of these things. My power also tells me how to use them against you. How to dig the knife deep and twist it."
We were coming up on the square. A few more buildings and then we just had to flare our youki in the right pattern to signal we were ready. The other two would decide on when to begin since they would be attacking from the front.
"You don't do that though." Said Jacklyn distracting me. "Is it tough to resist?"
"No. If I got distracted or obssessed thinking about that my power would tell me that was a weakness in myself, and how an enemy could use it to take me down." I said. Honestly, right now my power was saying I may be giving away too much. I squelched it before thinking more about it. I hated when it was right.
I decided if she was going to dig up my secrets I should go after a few of hers. "Can I ask you, Jacklyn, something about your power?"
"Oh, sure. I guess that's fair."
"I've always wondered why your range is everything you can touch or touch with your sword. It's as if your power considers your sword part of your body. Is that right?"
"Yeah. It didn't use to be that way, but either practice or my thinking has changed enough for it to work like that."
"One more thing," I said as I gauged she was open to me pushing a little further. "Does your power's effect really wear off that quickly or do you let it wear off during spars?"
She paused longer. We finally found a position on a flat rooftop that shouldn't expose us. We were a little farther than I'd like, but I didn't feel like we could get closer without risking detection.
"I undo the effect." She said meeting my eyes. "Don't spread it around, though."
She flared her youki twice in a very rapid interval. Then we both suppressed ours as much as possible.
***
When Elise and Evelyn chose to make an entrance they really made an entrance. Despite using the flat of their blades the bodies of enemies were strewn left and right.
"Let's go." Said Jacklyn.
We attacked from behind as soon as they got everyone's attention. With full speed we rushed forward and got to Morel's side. We didn't even bother engaging the men around him. We just grabbed him and tried to run.
Unfortunately, one of those men turned out to be a so-called "God-touched." He raised his hand and fire from nearby leapt at us. The fire took the form of lizards, but their bodies were intangible flames.
Before they could get within a dozen meters of us Jacklyn tapped him with her blade. He went down and curled up into a ball. The flames also curled up into balls, and changed their target from us to him. As we retreated they began circling him.
Unfortunately, he was not the only "god-touched" there. Elise and Evelyn were attacked by reinforcements. This time they shot arrows with ropes attached to them. None struck home.
Evelyn later told me she saw a lump move along the shadow of one of the ropes. They avoided it, of course, but it settled in Elise's shadow.
Next thing they knew a blade had sprung from Elise's shadow and pierced deep into her gut. Evelyn tried to cut off the arm that held that blade, but it retracted into the shadow before she could reach it.
Me and Jacklyn had pulled back out of the immediate vicinity of the battle, but were keeping watch. When Jacklyn saw Elise sprout a sword from her belly she left Morel with me to rush towards Elise.
When he tried to transfer to Evelyn's shadow Elise stomped on him. It didn't do any damage but he was reabsorbed into her shadow.
I finally got a look at him and shouted to use the fires and to apply it to her shadow.
They heard me but so did the archers and other swordsman. I had to grab Morel and start running. With only one of us carrying Morel, though, I found I difficult to shake them off.
By the time Jacklyn and Evelyn caught up me and Morel had been nearly cornered twice. We retreated, and then tended to Morel and Evelyn's injuries.
Elise was not with them.
***
I was staring at the campfire. Evelyn's wounds had been light. Only a stray arrow that caught her from a blind spot. Morel was resting and had been badly tortured. As much as we hated the necessity of the Organization we also couldn't help sympathizing when we saw those wounds. They had both been put to bed already.
"What are you thinking about?" Jacklyn asked me. She should have been resting too. I had taken the early watch, but she would have to be up for the rest of the night. Neither of us wanted to let Evelyn take a shift, even though she was up for it.
"I was thinking about what would have happened if you'd been able to shove a torch into Elise's shadow?" I said, which was true enough.
"I don't think it would have made a difference. Elise was an offensive warrior, and he got her straight through her intestines and stomach. He may even have hit her kidneys or liver."
"It might have been a woman," I noted. I didn't disagree with her conclusion, though.
Sometimes I hated knowing as much about our bodies and anatomy as we did. It helped with regeneration and even with knowing where you can and can't take a hit. Still, I could see her spread out like a cadaver. The drone of a bored retrieval squad member pointing out every part inside her.
"If only we'd pushed for more scouting. I might have been able to pick up the power users and noted their weaknesses ahead of time."
"It wouldn't have mattered. Do you think those two were just paired up by chance? If we carried torches the flame manipulator would have made the flames come alive and attack us."
I realized she was right. My power was great at putting together weaknesses, but if I didn't see them together, I would have assumed the weaknesses of the individuals were the same as the weaknesses of the group.
I fell back. I let my back hit the ground and stared up at the stars. I was a shit night guard too.
"Hey Clare."
"Yes."
"If you ever want to talk, even about my weaknesses or faults feel free to do so." She said. I looked at her. She was dusting imaginary dirt off of her thighs, but when she seemed my eyes on her she met my eyes without hesitation.
"It would probably do me some good." She continued. "Especially if your analysis helps me improve in my leadership. You know, being strong doesn't just automatically make someone a better leader." She said teasingly.
"You're a good leader." I said, and I meant it. I turned back to the stars.
"Jacklyn, if you ever want to sing then I'd like to hear you. If you sound awful, though, I'll honestly tell you about all the ways you stink."
Nothing attacked us that night except a bit of awful singing near dawn.
***
When we got back to Staff they took our report and Morel away. A week later, Lily was assigned to our team and after half a week of training we were sent out again with a new handler, who stayed much closer to us.
Less than a month later he told us that the Organization had revised the code of rules for us hybrids. It was now acceptable to kill human enemies of the Organization as long as it was either in self-defense or in the defense of one of the members of the Organization.
«***»
AN: The original title for this chapter was "A Last Drink" but I decided it was too spoilery.
Shadow Sword user got away. He's not as fast as the warriors, and probably freaked out when Clare started talking about throwing around fire. Technically, fire wouldn't have burned him, but using it to stretch the shadow he's in would have pushed him out of his physics breaking form and exposed him to physical attack.
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Omake: Abyss
- Location
- CA
Omake: Abyss
"So the support has really stopped."
"Yes, you're on your own."
"Have they?"
"No, I think they're still deciding. One faction made up of the Innovator and Knowledge Bearers are pressing for them to reconcile on the condition of an end to the Farm and human testing."
"And the other faction?"
"Basically everyone except the Archers and some of the Brawlers. They want you all annihilated, but they don't want do it right now."
"..."
"What are you thinking, Rimuto?"
"A great many things. I suppose it doesn't matter. Regrets are a luxury. Tell me, can they save the Empire?"
"I don't know. They want to strike a peace agreement with the Dragon's-kin, you know. I think if they went all out they're pretty sure they could arrange an outcome with mutual destruction."
"Threats are worthless if you're too soft to follow through."
"I know. The Dragon's-kin also do not think as we do. If the rumors are true they're also in negotiations with a new foreign group."
"Are we necessary?"
"Hey, it's now you, not we. I've changed my colors and now proudly support the new Empire."
"Congratulations. Tell me when they figure out how black your heart is and serve it to you on a silver platter."
"Rimuto, it's not as bad as you may be thinking. You hold in your hands a weapon that could also assure mutual destruction. I don't know if you realize it, but perhaps it's time to stop thinking like a scientist and start thinking like a warden."
"You're talking about the Abyssal Ones."
"Yes, if even one awakens a decent power or partners with the right users they'll be practically unstoppable. If they can get to the mainland, they could easily attract a faction capable of rivaling everybody else. Stop thinking like you're still one breakthrough away from saving everyone."
"If you're right, the best thing I could do is break off contact entirely. Turn us into a true Organization, and pretend the rest of the world does not exist."
"Dae would probably accept that, but many of the other councilors won't."
"Yes, I'll have to finally choose which faction to back and deal with the other one."
"So, what message do you want me to deliver for you?"
"As much as I'd like the Innovator and Knowledge Bearer faction to win I suspect the Commanders and Farmers will hold more influence in the long run."
"The farmers is a very small group. I think you should actually be worried about the Commanders and Collectors."
"In any case, I want to dissuade them from wishing to deal with us for as long as possible."
"Then you're going to have to leak to them one of your secret projects. They'll be able to create counter-measures for it, but the threat that you have others you aren't showing should make them hesitate."
"Very well. Follow me. Rather than showing them one of Dae's projects I'd like you to report on Miranda's successful drug and manipulator combination treatments. We're applying it to an old failed project of ours that went by the name of Abyss."
***
"So the support has really stopped."
"Yes, you're on your own."
"Have they?"
"No, I think they're still deciding. One faction made up of the Innovator and Knowledge Bearers are pressing for them to reconcile on the condition of an end to the Farm and human testing."
"And the other faction?"
"Basically everyone except the Archers and some of the Brawlers. They want you all annihilated, but they don't want do it right now."
"..."
"What are you thinking, Rimuto?"
"A great many things. I suppose it doesn't matter. Regrets are a luxury. Tell me, can they save the Empire?"
"I don't know. They want to strike a peace agreement with the Dragon's-kin, you know. I think if they went all out they're pretty sure they could arrange an outcome with mutual destruction."
"Threats are worthless if you're too soft to follow through."
"I know. The Dragon's-kin also do not think as we do. If the rumors are true they're also in negotiations with a new foreign group."
"Are we necessary?"
"Hey, it's now you, not we. I've changed my colors and now proudly support the new Empire."
"Congratulations. Tell me when they figure out how black your heart is and serve it to you on a silver platter."
"Rimuto, it's not as bad as you may be thinking. You hold in your hands a weapon that could also assure mutual destruction. I don't know if you realize it, but perhaps it's time to stop thinking like a scientist and start thinking like a warden."
"You're talking about the Abyssal Ones."
"Yes, if even one awakens a decent power or partners with the right users they'll be practically unstoppable. If they can get to the mainland, they could easily attract a faction capable of rivaling everybody else. Stop thinking like you're still one breakthrough away from saving everyone."
"If you're right, the best thing I could do is break off contact entirely. Turn us into a true Organization, and pretend the rest of the world does not exist."
"Dae would probably accept that, but many of the other councilors won't."
"Yes, I'll have to finally choose which faction to back and deal with the other one."
"So, what message do you want me to deliver for you?"
"As much as I'd like the Innovator and Knowledge Bearer faction to win I suspect the Commanders and Farmers will hold more influence in the long run."
"The farmers is a very small group. I think you should actually be worried about the Commanders and Collectors."
"In any case, I want to dissuade them from wishing to deal with us for as long as possible."
"Then you're going to have to leak to them one of your secret projects. They'll be able to create counter-measures for it, but the threat that you have others you aren't showing should make them hesitate."
"Very well. Follow me. Rather than showing them one of Dae's projects I'd like you to report on Miranda's successful drug and manipulator combination treatments. We're applying it to an old failed project of ours that went by the name of Abyss."
***
Abyssal Ones=Former #1 warriors who used too much youki and went past the roughly 80% limit. Thus, they awakened. There are three well-known examples (Riful, Isley and Luciela).
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Chapter 8: First Instinct and Reaction
- Location
- CA
Chapter 8: First Instinct and Reaction
Eva, Number 13, was a queer girl. When she talked with us I got the impression that she wasn't really talking with us. This only got stronger when she stopped talking to us to start talking to a wall. She eventually resumed interviewing us, but by then we knew that she found us silly, found the pay as a warrior extremely lackluster, and wished to go visit a tiny hole-in-the-wall food wagon in a village beside Crannog.
Aside from enraging Evelyn, though, it was a fairly harmless and innocuous round of interrogation. I would not even bother remembering the event except I managed to shake hands with her at the end. When I did this I used Teresa's power to copy my first set of memories from a ranked warrior.
She immediately detected it and began a not so subtle conversation about my invasion of privacy with the wall before concluding I had no idea how rude it was and probably would not make a good friend given how callous I am.
She also began referring to me from that point on as the "uncouth Mistress of Ceremonies."
Still, it was worth it for the copy of her memories. I have found, when using Teresa's power, that the balls of light are like condensed expressions of a memory. From there it was logical to experiment and see if I could replicate Teresa's feat of copying and condensing the memory of every notable warrior in her generation and several more before and after it.
When I'd practiced with my peers the copying part was not difficult once I got the hang of it. I imagined a clothesline and taking down the clothes, claiming its shadow, and then replacing them back onto the line.
It felt very natural, and Teresa had spent a long time studying every step of this before trying to move on to preserving and condensing memories. Leaving aside issues of speed and completeness came in time, the bigger problem was they never lasted longer than 6 hours.
The key was learning to condense and seal them into balls of bright memory like Teresa had. This wasn't something she actually learned until after she became a warrior, and I knew her original inspiration was two-fold--a scene of a blacksmith's furnace as he refined an iron ingot, and a beetle that rolled manure into dense spheres.
It confused me. I could see she'd studied both of these carefully before making her first breakthrough, but I couldn't see the importance of them.
Thus, after copying Eva's memories, I immediately retreated to an old storage room I'd found where I figured I'd be undisturbed for at least half the day. I needed to get all the use out of her memories that I could before they faded.
Fortunately, I'd found through my experiments with my peers that entering a memory I have copied first-hand is as easy as entering Teresa's memories. There's no reflection within a reflection like with the memories copied by Teresa.
The first thing I saw were two lines of unarmored warriors in an abandoned side-village. This was Eva's graduation test. She'd killed two other trainees that day before switching targets to taking out the Yoma that had secretly been introduced into the test.
Seeing her skills firsthand unsettled me a bit since they could only have gotten better, and she saw me as an unfriendly, uncouth power user.
In any case, things got even weirder when I saw the event that caused her to Awaken her power. That day she'd participated in an Awakened Being hunt as filler material for their team. She'd only been saved by the sacrifice of her friend. A friend who'd once beaten and abused her.
It was complicated.
I saw then what she'd been speaking to and I'm fairly sure even in the real-world, in that isolated closet, I yelped.
It was a giant ball of eyeballs. Not just a giant eyeball, but a giant conglomeration of eyeballs.
When it spoke it whispered the secrets of everything and everyone around her to Eva. It even communicated secrets it didn't seem to fully understand.
I directed her memories to the conversation we had just had. It would be easier to check their accuracy since I had first-hand memory of everything. It could tell Anna that Evelyn wanted to drink when she remembered the events of that day. It didn't seem to understand emotions or human traditions. It merely noted our desire to go and retrieve Elise's body, but could not connect it to the importance behind the act.
It was an interesting limitation. For the first time, I wondered about the source of our powers. With warriors there is a simple explanation. Yoma flesh and blood have made us both more and less than human.
These powers, though, of us so called "god-touched" make little sense at all. How can a person fly or another person generate a swamp? Even with youki involved I would find the whole thing mystifying. Perhaps there is a God at work.
If there is one and he looks like what Eva sees everyday I have to wonder what his intentions are. Does he eat humans just like Yoma and Awakened Beings? Perhaps he just consumes the power user. Maybe we're buying up our powers with our lifespans.
I suppose it doesn't matter. Warriors have infinite and terribly short lifespans. Warriors cease to age shortly after the hybridization process finishes. For some that is as quickly as six months after the procedure and for others it takes several years.
Regardless, longevity wasn't a limiting factor. Warriors tend to live no more than three years once they begin actively hunting, because the usage of youki stimulates it and eventually causes it to grow out of control.
We are ticking time bombs, and as long as my powers don't plan to stab me in the back in the next three or four years I should just take it and appreciate it. Besides unlike other warriors I couldn't even hold out a tiny bit of hope. Desertion and a quiet life never touching my youki couldn't offer me what I wanted.
I spent the rest of my time analyzing her toughest battles, her training regimen, and the styles and abilities she witnessed during her career.
I realized midway through that lately her workload has been drastically lightened. They're trying to preserve her. They don't want to waste her by sending her after an awakened being when a more disposable piece can be used instead.
It was also disappointing that the being Eva communicates with has only a superficial level of understanding of the styles and techniques she sees. It can interpret he form and function, but it misses the mindset and potential. When it sees a technique executed twice with different levels of strength it sees only improvement or regression. The pulse of the world around their youki is imperceptible even to her high-class knowledge power.
Eva's memories only captured things Eva sensed. Perhaps if she was able to feel the side effects her power would be able to tell her something useful.
I turned to see what memories Eva had of the current single digits. I knew their nicknames like "God-eye Galatea," "Heat-Haze Hilda," "Kujira of the Nothingness," and so on. But, the records on their current abilities and techniques was not accessible to trainees. She hadn't seen all of them. Especially the new ones or Priscilla. Still, this was a treasure trove I waiting to be looted.
***
Dozens of copies swarmed an awakened being. Each attack that appeared about to take it down instead speared a rock or a tree or the Being's own body. It was insane because even my own youki sense couldn't discern where she was. Every copy felt the same. A second later it was over. The being's two remaining tentacles hit duds and the warrior's blade sank into its neck. The two other warriors in the party leapt forward simultaneously to sink their blades into the falling head's eye sockets.
...
"I have no reason to fight you. A duel won't change our rankings."
"I don't care. You're strong. I need stronger opponents."
I'm bored of this farce.
The single-digit pauses. "Fine. But we got to the first blow only. We must not let ourselves get injured for what amounts to a game."
"This isn't a game to me."
"I know. But is to our masters. By the way, you've already lost."
Huh? On the cheek of her challenger a line of red appears. I turn back to the single-digit's blade. It is clean. But on one of her nails a curling swirl of...what looks like distorted space is vanishing.
...
Nothing. She did nothing. She didn't attack or defend. She didn't run or talk. She did nothing. At last in frustration the awakened being leapt forward at her. I tried to attack the swinging tail to keep it out of the picture for the others. My blade sank home but it had retracted at the last second. I only cut off the tip and the rest of it uncoiled and sent me flying back.
The other two warriors faired similarly, but we halted its advance. Just a little more time. Jezebel lost an arm, which was then stepped on during the fighting. A stray spray of needles almost blinds me in both eyes. I preserve one of them.
Finally, she moves. She takes one step and the being begins to shrink. Each step it becomes smaller and smaller while her aura grows vaster and deeper. It tries to flee. A vain attempt. We are not so uselessly we can't slow it down and soon it is tripping over its own feet dodging us in a midway form between awakened and human-form.
She raises her arm and the youki coats her blade in a terrible darkness. Then it is over.
...
There is nothing for me to do. I'm not even sure why I'm here. Is it really that important to have four warriors if two of them are doing all the work. Ave suggest the full team was formed in case multiple awakened beings are lying in wait for an ambush. It also whispers that she's grandstanding.
Ignorant of my thoughts, my leader continues to bombard the awakened being from half a kilometer away. Solid starlight smashes down from the sky. Most of it misses. She does not seem to be aiming for accuracy. Those that do only blast watermelon size holes into its form. These regenerate quickly. Clearly a defensive type given how long the battle has been going on.
It is a challenge of endurance. Will our leader's bombardment cease first, or the enemy's regeneration reach its limit. Her face is pale. The veins around her eyes throb wildly.
A cloud of mist appears around us. The awakened's youki disappears. It has done this once before. It reappears no more than five meters from us. Belle charges through the mist at it. She doesn't bother with her sword. Belle just uses a shoulder charge. The enemy almost dodges it, but is still knocked back five or ten more meters.
We all leap backwards. We need to regain our distance. Belle can take the rain. It starts again, but the bombardment is weaker this time. The mist also begins to disperse giving us our first glimpse at it nice it moved. It's laughing at us, but it comes out as more of a croak. It hasn't fully regenerated its throat.
It's holding Belle above its frog-like head. I am starting to get scared. Can Hailey keep this up?
It charges at us. It must need more time before it can move like it did before. I try to catch Belle when she's thrown at our leader. Belle is delirious. Hailey's rain peter's out.
Number thirty jumps in the way, and has her blade thrown aside and her head smashed like a berry. One last burst falls from above. Thrice the size of all the previous ones.
Something must have warned it because at the last minute it raises its arms above its head. This saves the monster.
Hailey collapses. The limitless awakened does not move. It is too damaged. My sword? Where is my sword? I find my blade but by then it's stirring. Why didn't I think to just use Belle's?
"We need to get out of here." I scream.
I throw Belle over one shoulder. Hailey has risen to her feet.
"Run Eva." Says Hailey. She sounds exhausted.
I take off, but Hailey doesn't follow. Behind me I can feel Hailey bringing her youki up to 70%, 75%, 79%. I don't ask. I don't want to know.
***
"That's why we should learn to be less reliant on our powers." I said to Jacklyn as I tried and almost dodged her blade.
She sent a jolt of laughter down it that distracted me long enough to bring it to my throat.
"It seems to be working just fine right now." She said with a smirk.
"I know," I said scowling, "but when we get out there fighting Awakened Beings we'll be fighting enemies with a lot longer range than our Claymores. Each of their blows could be fatal, and with such a long reach you can't rely on your ability even being a factor in the battle. That's not even counting the various archer class powers."
She nodded. "I know. This power is much more effective in duels where me and my opponent have similar ranges. Still, I don't think we really need to be planning for Awakened Hunts. I kind of just want us all to survive to graduation and I still feel I'm not nearly good enough with my power to stop exploring and working at it. Maybe if I keep working at it I can increase my range even further."
I'm...not as optimistic. Having seen a dozen warriors with powers in my memories, I know just how rare it was that she could even expand her range to her sword.
The issue with powers is that unlike youki it doesn't have the potential to grow stronger. Warriors get more skilled at using it overtime, but it was usually a dead end.
"You might be able to request a non-standard weapon to increase your range, but I don't think you're going to get much further. Developing a signature technique or style may not payoff in the short-run, but you're probably going to be pushed to graduate early. I can still improve a lot just focusing on the basics, but you need to start working on something special right now for Awakened hunts."
I thought again of #30. Of number #24, #19, and of #34. Of Anise, Georgiana, Irina and Zoe. Those were just the ones Eva saw with her own two eyes die. She had also never been involved in an Awakened Being hunt that was a complete disaster. Those had no survivors.
"You know what they're calling signature youki applications now, right? They're calling them minor powers or even fake powers."
"Only elitist power users are calling it that, which neither of us are." I retort. It's not entirely true, but I refuse to give in.
"You really feel strongly about this don't you. Alright fine." She said with a grin. "I said I'd take your advice about my weaknesses under advisement. I suppose it would be pretty silly disregarding it after only a week."
I can see a part of her wanted to switch to this anyway. We were after all raised on stories of the heroic and loyal warriors doing the implausible and improbable time and again with their Claymores.
She began a series of stretches. Back, abdomen, and then moving on to deltoids and trapezius.
"So how do you want to do this?" Asked Jacklyn.
Unfortunately, my problem was I had too many ideas and methods. Nothing had been standardized, but generally there's two parts. A unique youki manipulation you can do in your sleep, and...something else. I think it's like an image in your head, a pocket of megalomania, or an impenetrable will. Something you strictly adhere to and strive for.
"First, we need to figure out what your first instinct is. What you do when all the chips are down and you either win or die. Can you remember what you were thinking and feeling when we had those power users attack our team and our plan fell apart."
"Yeah." She said holding her stretch longer and longer. "My emotions are always weird, so I don't think it's a good indicator of my 'instinct,' but I just knew things were going to get worse and yet I felt relief."
"Relief?"
"Yeah, I already knew things were going to go wrong, and that the power users could flip our ambush over onto us." She said scratching her head. "When I saw Elise go down I hated that I wasn't good enough to have avoided it, and I hated that I was so relieved Elise was dying and not me. That I caught the other one in time and this one wasn't targeting me."
That wasn't what I'd expected. In my memory Jacklyn was a brave leader who charged to the defense of her comrades. It answered my question, though.
"That's fine. I don't think warriors should be judged by their self-preservation instinct, but by their willingness to ignore it. You sent me away, and went directly after him. You defied your fears. That's important too. It's what you're striving for."
I began to count on my fingers. "Alright, there's three things we need to do." I said. "We need to compile a list of what you're skilled at physically, what you're most skilled at in terms of using your youki, and then take into account your 'first instinct' and how you responded to it."
"If your instinct is to protect yourself but your response is to fight in the most dangerous place for the sake of others you're probably going to be most suitable for a defensive skill that encompasses your whole body or skill that takes into account the enemy's moves and reacts to it."
"I'm sort of good at thrusts and short-range dodging." She added matter of factly. She paused to consider things. "Hey, maybe it would help if you gave me an example. I doubt you'd be telling me all this without having first given it a try yourself. What was your 'first instinct?'"
I knew this question was coming. I tried to calm down my heartbeat.
"To kill, and my reaction was to use my own body as bait." I said. There was more to it than that, but I didn't want to tell her about my vow. I think, comrade or not, she'd laugh at me if I told her that.
"Also, the most suitable youki manipulation I found for me is a way to preset instructions in my limb's youki to move my body at a later time."
"How is that useful for combat?" She asked.
"It's not. You need to combine it with an image to strive for. A movement that encapsulates your instinct."
"And what move is that for you? The ultimate taunt?" She was probably thinking of my power.
"I'll tell you when I finish it."
AN: Clare has a problem. Alright many problems, but the one in regards to her memory shard this chapter is she doesn't have an instinctive understanding of how Teresa's powers work. She has only just begun to grasps how unique it is that Teresa could just transfer her power. Of course, she also doesn't even meet the minimum requirement to start working with long-term memory, which is going to require her to embrace conflict some more.
Eva, Number 13, was a queer girl. When she talked with us I got the impression that she wasn't really talking with us. This only got stronger when she stopped talking to us to start talking to a wall. She eventually resumed interviewing us, but by then we knew that she found us silly, found the pay as a warrior extremely lackluster, and wished to go visit a tiny hole-in-the-wall food wagon in a village beside Crannog.
Aside from enraging Evelyn, though, it was a fairly harmless and innocuous round of interrogation. I would not even bother remembering the event except I managed to shake hands with her at the end. When I did this I used Teresa's power to copy my first set of memories from a ranked warrior.
She immediately detected it and began a not so subtle conversation about my invasion of privacy with the wall before concluding I had no idea how rude it was and probably would not make a good friend given how callous I am.
She also began referring to me from that point on as the "uncouth Mistress of Ceremonies."
Still, it was worth it for the copy of her memories. I have found, when using Teresa's power, that the balls of light are like condensed expressions of a memory. From there it was logical to experiment and see if I could replicate Teresa's feat of copying and condensing the memory of every notable warrior in her generation and several more before and after it.
When I'd practiced with my peers the copying part was not difficult once I got the hang of it. I imagined a clothesline and taking down the clothes, claiming its shadow, and then replacing them back onto the line.
It felt very natural, and Teresa had spent a long time studying every step of this before trying to move on to preserving and condensing memories. Leaving aside issues of speed and completeness came in time, the bigger problem was they never lasted longer than 6 hours.
The key was learning to condense and seal them into balls of bright memory like Teresa had. This wasn't something she actually learned until after she became a warrior, and I knew her original inspiration was two-fold--a scene of a blacksmith's furnace as he refined an iron ingot, and a beetle that rolled manure into dense spheres.
It confused me. I could see she'd studied both of these carefully before making her first breakthrough, but I couldn't see the importance of them.
Thus, after copying Eva's memories, I immediately retreated to an old storage room I'd found where I figured I'd be undisturbed for at least half the day. I needed to get all the use out of her memories that I could before they faded.
Fortunately, I'd found through my experiments with my peers that entering a memory I have copied first-hand is as easy as entering Teresa's memories. There's no reflection within a reflection like with the memories copied by Teresa.
The first thing I saw were two lines of unarmored warriors in an abandoned side-village. This was Eva's graduation test. She'd killed two other trainees that day before switching targets to taking out the Yoma that had secretly been introduced into the test.
Seeing her skills firsthand unsettled me a bit since they could only have gotten better, and she saw me as an unfriendly, uncouth power user.
In any case, things got even weirder when I saw the event that caused her to Awaken her power. That day she'd participated in an Awakened Being hunt as filler material for their team. She'd only been saved by the sacrifice of her friend. A friend who'd once beaten and abused her.
It was complicated.
I saw then what she'd been speaking to and I'm fairly sure even in the real-world, in that isolated closet, I yelped.
It was a giant ball of eyeballs. Not just a giant eyeball, but a giant conglomeration of eyeballs.
When it spoke it whispered the secrets of everything and everyone around her to Eva. It even communicated secrets it didn't seem to fully understand.
I directed her memories to the conversation we had just had. It would be easier to check their accuracy since I had first-hand memory of everything. It could tell Anna that Evelyn wanted to drink when she remembered the events of that day. It didn't seem to understand emotions or human traditions. It merely noted our desire to go and retrieve Elise's body, but could not connect it to the importance behind the act.
It was an interesting limitation. For the first time, I wondered about the source of our powers. With warriors there is a simple explanation. Yoma flesh and blood have made us both more and less than human.
These powers, though, of us so called "god-touched" make little sense at all. How can a person fly or another person generate a swamp? Even with youki involved I would find the whole thing mystifying. Perhaps there is a God at work.
If there is one and he looks like what Eva sees everyday I have to wonder what his intentions are. Does he eat humans just like Yoma and Awakened Beings? Perhaps he just consumes the power user. Maybe we're buying up our powers with our lifespans.
I suppose it doesn't matter. Warriors have infinite and terribly short lifespans. Warriors cease to age shortly after the hybridization process finishes. For some that is as quickly as six months after the procedure and for others it takes several years.
Regardless, longevity wasn't a limiting factor. Warriors tend to live no more than three years once they begin actively hunting, because the usage of youki stimulates it and eventually causes it to grow out of control.
We are ticking time bombs, and as long as my powers don't plan to stab me in the back in the next three or four years I should just take it and appreciate it. Besides unlike other warriors I couldn't even hold out a tiny bit of hope. Desertion and a quiet life never touching my youki couldn't offer me what I wanted.
I spent the rest of my time analyzing her toughest battles, her training regimen, and the styles and abilities she witnessed during her career.
I realized midway through that lately her workload has been drastically lightened. They're trying to preserve her. They don't want to waste her by sending her after an awakened being when a more disposable piece can be used instead.
It was also disappointing that the being Eva communicates with has only a superficial level of understanding of the styles and techniques she sees. It can interpret he form and function, but it misses the mindset and potential. When it sees a technique executed twice with different levels of strength it sees only improvement or regression. The pulse of the world around their youki is imperceptible even to her high-class knowledge power.
Eva's memories only captured things Eva sensed. Perhaps if she was able to feel the side effects her power would be able to tell her something useful.
I turned to see what memories Eva had of the current single digits. I knew their nicknames like "God-eye Galatea," "Heat-Haze Hilda," "Kujira of the Nothingness," and so on. But, the records on their current abilities and techniques was not accessible to trainees. She hadn't seen all of them. Especially the new ones or Priscilla. Still, this was a treasure trove I waiting to be looted.
***
Dozens of copies swarmed an awakened being. Each attack that appeared about to take it down instead speared a rock or a tree or the Being's own body. It was insane because even my own youki sense couldn't discern where she was. Every copy felt the same. A second later it was over. The being's two remaining tentacles hit duds and the warrior's blade sank into its neck. The two other warriors in the party leapt forward simultaneously to sink their blades into the falling head's eye sockets.
...
"I have no reason to fight you. A duel won't change our rankings."
"I don't care. You're strong. I need stronger opponents."
I'm bored of this farce.
The single-digit pauses. "Fine. But we got to the first blow only. We must not let ourselves get injured for what amounts to a game."
"This isn't a game to me."
"I know. But is to our masters. By the way, you've already lost."
Huh? On the cheek of her challenger a line of red appears. I turn back to the single-digit's blade. It is clean. But on one of her nails a curling swirl of...what looks like distorted space is vanishing.
...
Nothing. She did nothing. She didn't attack or defend. She didn't run or talk. She did nothing. At last in frustration the awakened being leapt forward at her. I tried to attack the swinging tail to keep it out of the picture for the others. My blade sank home but it had retracted at the last second. I only cut off the tip and the rest of it uncoiled and sent me flying back.
The other two warriors faired similarly, but we halted its advance. Just a little more time. Jezebel lost an arm, which was then stepped on during the fighting. A stray spray of needles almost blinds me in both eyes. I preserve one of them.
Finally, she moves. She takes one step and the being begins to shrink. Each step it becomes smaller and smaller while her aura grows vaster and deeper. It tries to flee. A vain attempt. We are not so uselessly we can't slow it down and soon it is tripping over its own feet dodging us in a midway form between awakened and human-form.
She raises her arm and the youki coats her blade in a terrible darkness. Then it is over.
...
There is nothing for me to do. I'm not even sure why I'm here. Is it really that important to have four warriors if two of them are doing all the work. Ave suggest the full team was formed in case multiple awakened beings are lying in wait for an ambush. It also whispers that she's grandstanding.
Ignorant of my thoughts, my leader continues to bombard the awakened being from half a kilometer away. Solid starlight smashes down from the sky. Most of it misses. She does not seem to be aiming for accuracy. Those that do only blast watermelon size holes into its form. These regenerate quickly. Clearly a defensive type given how long the battle has been going on.
It is a challenge of endurance. Will our leader's bombardment cease first, or the enemy's regeneration reach its limit. Her face is pale. The veins around her eyes throb wildly.
A cloud of mist appears around us. The awakened's youki disappears. It has done this once before. It reappears no more than five meters from us. Belle charges through the mist at it. She doesn't bother with her sword. Belle just uses a shoulder charge. The enemy almost dodges it, but is still knocked back five or ten more meters.
We all leap backwards. We need to regain our distance. Belle can take the rain. It starts again, but the bombardment is weaker this time. The mist also begins to disperse giving us our first glimpse at it nice it moved. It's laughing at us, but it comes out as more of a croak. It hasn't fully regenerated its throat.
It's holding Belle above its frog-like head. I am starting to get scared. Can Hailey keep this up?
It charges at us. It must need more time before it can move like it did before. I try to catch Belle when she's thrown at our leader. Belle is delirious. Hailey's rain peter's out.
Number thirty jumps in the way, and has her blade thrown aside and her head smashed like a berry. One last burst falls from above. Thrice the size of all the previous ones.
Something must have warned it because at the last minute it raises its arms above its head. This saves the monster.
Hailey collapses. The limitless awakened does not move. It is too damaged. My sword? Where is my sword? I find my blade but by then it's stirring. Why didn't I think to just use Belle's?
"We need to get out of here." I scream.
I throw Belle over one shoulder. Hailey has risen to her feet.
"Run Eva." Says Hailey. She sounds exhausted.
I take off, but Hailey doesn't follow. Behind me I can feel Hailey bringing her youki up to 70%, 75%, 79%. I don't ask. I don't want to know.
***
"That's why we should learn to be less reliant on our powers." I said to Jacklyn as I tried and almost dodged her blade.
She sent a jolt of laughter down it that distracted me long enough to bring it to my throat.
"It seems to be working just fine right now." She said with a smirk.
"I know," I said scowling, "but when we get out there fighting Awakened Beings we'll be fighting enemies with a lot longer range than our Claymores. Each of their blows could be fatal, and with such a long reach you can't rely on your ability even being a factor in the battle. That's not even counting the various archer class powers."
She nodded. "I know. This power is much more effective in duels where me and my opponent have similar ranges. Still, I don't think we really need to be planning for Awakened Hunts. I kind of just want us all to survive to graduation and I still feel I'm not nearly good enough with my power to stop exploring and working at it. Maybe if I keep working at it I can increase my range even further."
I'm...not as optimistic. Having seen a dozen warriors with powers in my memories, I know just how rare it was that she could even expand her range to her sword.
The issue with powers is that unlike youki it doesn't have the potential to grow stronger. Warriors get more skilled at using it overtime, but it was usually a dead end.
"You might be able to request a non-standard weapon to increase your range, but I don't think you're going to get much further. Developing a signature technique or style may not payoff in the short-run, but you're probably going to be pushed to graduate early. I can still improve a lot just focusing on the basics, but you need to start working on something special right now for Awakened hunts."
I thought again of #30. Of number #24, #19, and of #34. Of Anise, Georgiana, Irina and Zoe. Those were just the ones Eva saw with her own two eyes die. She had also never been involved in an Awakened Being hunt that was a complete disaster. Those had no survivors.
"You know what they're calling signature youki applications now, right? They're calling them minor powers or even fake powers."
"Only elitist power users are calling it that, which neither of us are." I retort. It's not entirely true, but I refuse to give in.
"You really feel strongly about this don't you. Alright fine." She said with a grin. "I said I'd take your advice about my weaknesses under advisement. I suppose it would be pretty silly disregarding it after only a week."
I can see a part of her wanted to switch to this anyway. We were after all raised on stories of the heroic and loyal warriors doing the implausible and improbable time and again with their Claymores.
She began a series of stretches. Back, abdomen, and then moving on to deltoids and trapezius.
"So how do you want to do this?" Asked Jacklyn.
Unfortunately, my problem was I had too many ideas and methods. Nothing had been standardized, but generally there's two parts. A unique youki manipulation you can do in your sleep, and...something else. I think it's like an image in your head, a pocket of megalomania, or an impenetrable will. Something you strictly adhere to and strive for.
"First, we need to figure out what your first instinct is. What you do when all the chips are down and you either win or die. Can you remember what you were thinking and feeling when we had those power users attack our team and our plan fell apart."
"Yeah." She said holding her stretch longer and longer. "My emotions are always weird, so I don't think it's a good indicator of my 'instinct,' but I just knew things were going to get worse and yet I felt relief."
"Relief?"
"Yeah, I already knew things were going to go wrong, and that the power users could flip our ambush over onto us." She said scratching her head. "When I saw Elise go down I hated that I wasn't good enough to have avoided it, and I hated that I was so relieved Elise was dying and not me. That I caught the other one in time and this one wasn't targeting me."
That wasn't what I'd expected. In my memory Jacklyn was a brave leader who charged to the defense of her comrades. It answered my question, though.
"That's fine. I don't think warriors should be judged by their self-preservation instinct, but by their willingness to ignore it. You sent me away, and went directly after him. You defied your fears. That's important too. It's what you're striving for."
I began to count on my fingers. "Alright, there's three things we need to do." I said. "We need to compile a list of what you're skilled at physically, what you're most skilled at in terms of using your youki, and then take into account your 'first instinct' and how you responded to it."
"If your instinct is to protect yourself but your response is to fight in the most dangerous place for the sake of others you're probably going to be most suitable for a defensive skill that encompasses your whole body or skill that takes into account the enemy's moves and reacts to it."
"I'm sort of good at thrusts and short-range dodging." She added matter of factly. She paused to consider things. "Hey, maybe it would help if you gave me an example. I doubt you'd be telling me all this without having first given it a try yourself. What was your 'first instinct?'"
I knew this question was coming. I tried to calm down my heartbeat.
"To kill, and my reaction was to use my own body as bait." I said. There was more to it than that, but I didn't want to tell her about my vow. I think, comrade or not, she'd laugh at me if I told her that.
"Also, the most suitable youki manipulation I found for me is a way to preset instructions in my limb's youki to move my body at a later time."
"How is that useful for combat?" She asked.
"It's not. You need to combine it with an image to strive for. A movement that encapsulates your instinct."
"And what move is that for you? The ultimate taunt?" She was probably thinking of my power.
"I'll tell you when I finish it."
«***»
AN: Clare has a problem. Alright many problems, but the one in regards to her memory shard this chapter is she doesn't have an instinctive understanding of how Teresa's powers work. She has only just begun to grasps how unique it is that Teresa could just transfer her power. Of course, she also doesn't even meet the minimum requirement to start working with long-term memory, which is going to require her to embrace conflict some more.
1. Priscilla (unknown epithet)
3. Kujira of the Nothingness
5. God-eye Galatea
8. Heat Haze Hilda
13. Eva
Ophelia is probably in there somewhere between Galatea and Hilda, and may or may not have developed her rippling sword technique yet.
Storm Rain Hailey and Belle were also alive in the flashback. It is unknown if they are still alive.
3. Kujira of the Nothingness
5. God-eye Galatea
8. Heat Haze Hilda
13. Eva
Ophelia is probably in there somewhere between Galatea and Hilda, and may or may not have developed her rippling sword technique yet.
Storm Rain Hailey and Belle were also alive in the flashback. It is unknown if they are still alive.
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SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
I was amazed Teresa could transfer her power. At first, I just thought she'd transferred the memories she'd taken (because her power was to copy and redistribute them), that would have been a big enough advantage combined with Clare's own power, even without Clare being still able to copy new people's.
I expected that, too. I'm so glad I didn't get it. People do not do anywhere near enough different things with Worm fanfiction. There are too many minor variations on the same theme.
Eh, a lot of people like the 'street-level' part of Worm best and the real threat there is other parahumans, which hasn't changed.
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This was actually foreshadowed in the first Omake right below the prologue. The thing to note is that the Historian points out one of the biggest problems is the baddest, most overwhelming shards hooked up with stronger beings.
Teresa is canonically the most powerful being in this universe (at least would be if she awoke. At 10% she could fight Priscilla's over 70%. Of course she can't just have a regular old high end thinker shard. Especially given it has a striker limit on it, and she doesn't seem to have any multitasking ability that would help her efficiently comb through exponential amounts of information.
As I mentioned in an earlier comment the most potent aspect of her shard is that she's a trump. Her shard in particular is closely related to another one from Canon worm universe. I am looking forward to Clare trying to sell her soul to the devil to get what she wants, only to find the devil isn't interested.
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SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Weird, I would have expected the opposite power distribution. One-sided stomps are less interesting than constant strife fed by the weak suddenly gaining power to fight the strong, at least for generating information through conflict.
It's why the Entities gave shards out disproportionately to women, minorities, and unpopular political groups (leading to things like large neo-Nazi resurgence) in canon.
It's why the Entities gave shards out disproportionately to women, minorities, and unpopular political groups (leading to things like large neo-Nazi resurgence) in canon.
Eh, Claymore's see a lot of conflict. And they are a minority, even if they aren't reacting in the same way Earth one's would have/do. As noted, the Claymore's wouldn't use the Shards if they weren't powerful or esoteric enough to be useful to them though.
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Even with lung level powers it's not safely going to be one-sided curbstomps. On earth bet there were tons of weaker applicable powers the PRT could have used or called in to assassinate Lung if they weren't trying to take him alive. I would also just like to mention that leveling the playing field doesn't always lead to more fights. I could easily see the increase in power of everybody else causing the abyssals to gather other awakened beings to protect themselves and taking a defensive position. The abyssals being overconfident is a good way to get endbringer level attacks.
My thinking was that women and minorities were more likely to get powers precisely because they were more likely to suffer a trigger event.
Same thing for the resurgence of Neo-Nazism. The people who buy into it I imagine are people at the bottom of the social hierarchy wanting to use race as a basis for their own superiority. The less educated rednecks if you want to be politically incorrect. That's a group I'd expect to trigger a lot more hence their disproportionate representation. On the other hand, you're also probably right that the other contributing factor is the shards probably chose to bond with people most likely to use those powers violently.
It does bring up an issue: how could a nearly unparalleled ruler like Isley or Riful even suffer a trigger event? It's unlikely all or even most of the most powerful awakened beings have triggered at this point in time. They probably all have become shard candidates given their potential to sow chaos, though.
I also think one important factor is whether a shard will be used and if the shard bearer would even survive their trigger event. If you give a weak power to a strong awakened being then they may not bother using their power as much. They also may not even survive their trigger event. Anyone strong enough to put an Abyssal in a corner and make them suffer isn't going to be put off by having their prey suddenly get Browbeat's power. That would be a waste of a shard because the new trigger would likely wind up dead on the same day they triggered. Likewise, someone like Octavia if she got Squealer's power would see it simply as a hobby since she can probably run faster and tank blows better than anything she could build.
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Chapter 9: Big Sis?
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Chapter 9: A Big Sis?
Six months ago the whole world shook.
Everyone and anyone could feel the monster awaken. The birth of a new abyssal one.
I despaired.
Jacklyn, Evelyn and even Lily tried to encourage me or lure me out of my depression. It took Selene finally seeing me, dragging me out to a practice hall and beating me bloody to cause me to begin to turn around.
In the end, she held the sword an inch from my throat and asked me what I was going to do about it. I had no answer. She threw her blade away. The sword we'd all been raised to even sleep with.
She told me next time she'll leave me to rot and be disposed of or worse. It was the pain and shame in her eyes that forced me to move. I didn't want to leave her feeling like that.
Still, I couldn't be like the rest. We all felt the wave, but none of the others could truly comprehend the magnitude of what had happened.
Teresa had fought the Silver King once. Neither had gotten serious. She just used 30% while he only partially awakened his arm. It was a spar on another level.
After that Isley jokingly begged her to never awaken. That he'd never seen a worse monster. Teresa had promised that if she awoke she'd just claim the central region and leave him and his castle alone.
Isley had never realized she'd used the match to copy his memories. I'd never touched them. If Hysteria alone could almost possess me then I wasn't getting near them with a ten foot pole.
Still, I had seen Teresa's reaction to witnessing them.
She'd called him a completed nexus. Then she'd begun training even harder than before.
I don't always understand what she means when she talks about techniques or quality vs quantity, but I understood enough in this instance.
Priscilla is beyond me.
I threw myself back into more training and killing. It was empty but I found a paradoxical satisfaction in that. Teresa had also felt empty until meeting me. She had even flirted with the idea of awakening. Dangerous thoughts, but she more than any other warrior understood the process and what lay on the other side.
I think I caused Jacklyn more headaches with how reckless I became. It didn't help that Evelyn had taken to drinking, boasting and picking fights with townspeople. She never took it too far and most had the sense to back off, but I think we were quickly burning through any good will we earned by saving our last handler.
The low note for our team was when Jacklyn got sent up to the next class to work in pairs after just three more months. We got a new girl, Candice, who seemed to have also been pushed into more advanced classes early. Some of her basics were a little sloppy, but she was still probably as good a fighter as Lily.
She also had a power to make a single target (but not herself) intangible for 3-5 seconds. It was a good defensive power. The only issue was how irregular the interval was. For a warrior the difference between 3 seconds and five was an eternity.
Still, I can't complain. It was at least more useful than mine, and she saved my life more than once by using it on me or my attacker. But she was no Jacklyn.
Lily ended up being the default leader since Candice was too shy, Evelyn too brash and I was just kind of apathetic. We recovered, and didn't lose anyone else. It helped that they sent us on fewer missions after Jacklyn left. They also added a new type of training--anti-army training.
They taught us through example how vulnerable we were to waves of arrows or javelins. If only they asked me to design the enemy tactics. My power doesn't work as well on vague enemies I don't know much about, but if you want to pick apart "Claymores" you can do it through gas attacks with the right chemicals, traps that reduce their mobility plus barrages, or either drugs or disease.
Most of us are too arrogant. No poison working on us does not mean we cannot be drugged. All it would take is a tiny ounce of awakened flesh.
Moreover, even before the organization began researching it, Leigia's infamous aura was a youki version of mankind's oldest enemy--disease. If her technique had been refined to not lose as much potency as it passed from one carrier to the next victim, then she could have been an Abyssal level entity even without awakening. Her short tenure as a number one was likely not an accident.
In any case, the organization's war games, while not a one-sided slaughter, were still cruel enough. We learned to live and die by the abilities of anyone who could create defensive walls, fortifications or smoke screen devices.
We also learned in our drills that no amount of soldiers will matter if you get the right power for the job. Twenty-two of us trainees were given a sample fort. More than half of us were on the verge of graduating like Jacklyn and many of us had powers of our own.
We were still blindsided. I realized my own and other knowledge powers only work if we can give it the right clues.
Number 10 walked right in and then walked out. She did not even need to use 10% of her youki. When she walked out twenty of the twenty two of us had fallen asleep. One brawler who had an automatic healing factor seemed to resist it naturally and the other was merely left awake to fight him.
They both reported seeing and losing to #10 after the rest of us fell. If it were not for my own ability to copy their memories and the way each other's wounds coincidentally matched up with each other's strikes, I might also have been fooled.
Afterwards, I found a couple of my favorite informants among the Organization's men to flirt with and skim the memories of. The other side was enlightening. They feared a war with one of the Abyssal Ones or the Rabonians. The loss of the number one was incredibly public. I think only the fear of the New Abyssal of the South kept everyone home. Well, that and the threat of civil war.
Prosperity was threatening to lead to war. Never before had there been a surplus large of labor and the crippling threat of the Yoma were becoming more manageable each year. Now the surplus allowed leaders to fund full-time soldiers and knight training for the masses.
Our war games were nothing but shallow copies of the ones that had sprung up in the South and West. These war games provided not just training, but an outlet to simulate a war and demonstrate either that it would be too costly to fight, or defeat was inevitable and it was best to just surrender to the dominant party's terms.
It was still a new concept, and it didn't always work. Two prominent cities in the South were rumoured to have actually gone to war over a knowledge bearer who could find Yoma.
I learned one other secret. A theory that was unpopular partly because of how pessimistic it was. I refused to believe it too. Better to live as a fool than to be crushed by reality.
***
After three more months I got an invitation to join the pilot phase of a new project. Project Geppetto sought to not only help offensive warriors who lost body parts recover. The end goal was to graft even stronger parts than the originals onto a warrior.
I hesitated at first because the offer came from the Retrieval Squad. They had a bad reputation, and I knew I was not considered useful or valuable yet to the organization. I may have been chosen simply because I had a missing appendage and was expendable.
But they didn't give me time to think. They needed an answer that day. What sold me was the second part of the project's goals--the promise of power.
When I arrived, I met #7, Older Sister Ophelia. Eva had never worked together with her on a hunt but she'd heard rumors that her power expanded upon. Ophelia was a young up and coming warrior with potential to hit the low single digits. Maybe even #2.
She was also insane.
There were two things you needed to know about her. She was obsessed with awakened beings, and she loved playing the older sister even towards older warriors. Most, agreed to play along regardless of their feelings on the matter.
"Heya, Clare. Nicetomeetcha." She greeted me with overflowing cheer. "You can call me big sis or sis or sissy-poo. That last one was a joke, though. Don't call me that."
"Uhh, sure big sis. But just to clarify, what's your real name?" I asked as I followed Ophelia into the Retrieval squad's building.
"Oh, I guess I should have led with that. I'm Ophelia Victoria, #7's my rank, and its not changing any time soon if I have anything to say about it. I'm not giving up the luckiest number ever!" Her smile was pleasant, but it was a predator's smile. All my power could come up with about her was she was too willing to take risks to become stronger. Funny it said the same to me sometimes.
"Now that I answered your question would you mind telling me your full name? I only know your first one from my crabby sis who did the paperwork on this little event."
Eva hadn't been able to confirm but her power suggested knowing her full name was a requirement to use her power. A power that seemed to affect probability in some manner. I vaguely remember Eva's power also suggested something about a knowledge type application that was biased.
Still, I couldn't just refuse to give it. That would be suspicious and I didn't want to attract anymore of her attention than I absolutely had to.
"Sure. But, Clare really is my full name. I was only given a first name."
Ophelia's vulpine smile grew then she froze.
"Oh my. Well, it's nice to meet you then, Clare. I hope we can get to know each other a lot more. It's too bad I've been so busy I haven't had much time to check the progress of all my younger siblings. If you ever need help feel free to ask." She said as she guiding me into a large hall.
Inside the hall was a deep, circular pit. An awakened corpse was strung up to the ceiling by chains attached to rods embedded in its flesh. Around it was a circular, multi-story platform to observe it and take samples from multiple areas.
"Do you like the decorations? Some new warriors are shocked or even scared when they see their first awakened being in the flesh."
I suddenly realized that, while it was interesting, I had observed it like it was a mere curiosity instead of my first time seeing an awakened being.
"Uhh, I was struck speechless." I stumbled through saying.
"Idiot." I thought at myself.
"It's alright. Only 20 meters long. She was a number 31. The big ones can reach fifty meters."
It wasn't long, but it was still impressively thick and squat. A belly ringed with horns bent downwards. A third armed projected from her back.
"Why are you so interested in Awakened Beings, Ophelia? Most warriors try to avoid getting picked for such battles, but you're-"
"Enthusiastic? I could tell you that it's important that the strong do their duty and it prevents those weaker or younger than myself from having to be fielded. But those are really just perks. In truth, I love my job. It's why I try to volunteer with the Retrieval Squad whenever possible."
I decide to try again. "Most would be unsettled at seeing a possible future for themselves."
"Let me tell you," she said dancing ahead of me. "You don't need to awaken to be a monster, and although you should avoid awakening, becoming an awakened is far from the worst possible end for a person."
With a flourish she showed me to a backroom I hadn't been able to see when I first came in. It had been directly opposite us with the awakened corpse in between blocking my view. As I tentatively walked in I felt Ophelia give me a strong shove.
"Miranda, you're new guinea pig has arrived." She sang.
"Ophelia, you really shouldn't call your younger sisters guinea pigs." Said a woman in a white coat over form-fitting white armor. She was not wearing the traditional silver pauldrons of a full warrior, but I could feel from her aura that she was one, and an impressively strong one too.
"They're my little sisters outside of here. But in here they're your guinea pigs. No point dressing it up."
She sighed and then turned to me. "Hello, Clare right? My name is Miranda number 42."
What?
"Ahh, they don't advertise it, but aside from the 40 active warriors who see combat there are a number of non-combat related positions. For example, number 43 has an ability that lets her control nitrogen. Its commercial applications are more valuable than her combat prowess, so earlier this year she was demoted to #43. She has not taken it well. I think they should just renumber us. Give us non-combatants negative numbers or something, but I suppose that might just be my ego talking."
It struck me then. The thing that was wrong. "Your hair is black." In some of the handlers memories I had seen her and assumed she wasn't a warrior because of her hair color. Females working in the organization were very rare. Certainly unheard of among the handlers, but for a talented scientist I had thought they'd just made an exception.
Now that I could feel her aura I realized they'd made a bigger exception than I expected. Her aura was bright and vicious.
"Ahh, an invention of mine. Still in its trial phase so don't get your hopes up. Anyway, you're not here to hear me talk about myself. You've accepted a position as subject #3 in project Geppetto. Before we go any further you should see this."
She brought me around to a cabinet, and pulled out a bucket filled with a purple liquid. She immediately stuck her hand in and drew out a hand and wrist. There was about two inches of forearm too, and beneath the liquid dripping off its end I saw an ebony bone.
It was a left hand just like the one I'd lost.
"I don't believe in forcing my experiments onto others."
"Right?" Mentioned Ophelia sarcastically.
"Oh, shush you." She warned. "Anyway, I'm going to give you one last opportunity to back out. If you do so this goes back in the bucket, you'll go back to your squad, and as long as you keep quiet about everything you've seen today you can pretend none of this ever happened."
"And if I agree?"
"I slap this on your stump, and then you'll be visited by a worker periodically to report about what its like to have a single digit appendage."
"I'm not going to freak out or ask questions about where it came from. I'm ready."
"Are you? You really should ask where this came from? After all, this isn't just a normal single digit appendage. This was harvested from the body of an awakened being by the woman behind you. Impressively, she cut it off before it could even transform."
I turned to see Ophelia lightly smirking.
"This isn't just a warrior's hand." Continued Miranda. "It's a hand that was once part of a hybrid that utilized 100% of her youki. It may have unusual properties, especially when matched to a warrior who has not awakened." She paused to give me time to digest that.
"You said I was going to be subject number 3. What happened to #1 and #2?"
"Number 2 experienced a small change in her diet. She eats three times as much now, and has reported cravings. Subject number 1 awakened one week after the transplant, but her sample was collected by a less competent fighter. It showed traces from its original holder's awakened form since it had just begun to transform into an awakened form before it was removed."
"That might not have been the issue. Just give the girl the raw numbers on her odds. It's A 50-50 gamble."
Miranda frowned at that, but didn't disagree.
I wanted to take it anyway. I knew the goal was power exceeding the original body part, but I had expected just a limb from a high ranked warrior. Perhaps a traitor or deserter. This was much more dangerous.
And yet, it also had so much more potential. Could I partially awaken the limb while maintaining my human mind? I had no idea. No one had ever tried something like this before. I was certain subject #2 was playing it very, very safe given what happened to her predecessor.
"Can you answer one question? Why me?"
Miranda's eyebrows rose. "You do realize Ophelia only lopped off a left arm before it transformed. While quite a few warriors lose limbs many lose them at the elbow or shoulder. There were only two of you that had lost a left hand. Although, I think the other girl had a bit more of her wrist left."
"And was I chosen because I was the less useful one?"
She laughed at that. "Not quite. You were chosen because your old handler Morel highly recommended you."
I was shocked. I hadn't seen Morel since we'd escaped all those months ago. I half expected he'd been executed for leaking a secret during the torture, or assigned to the coldest no man's land in rural Alphonse for getting captured in the first place.
"So what will it be? I do have another candidate I can offer this to. If both of you turn me down plenty of colorheads would lop off their own left hand at the chance to get power and make something of themselves."
"I accept." I said.
"Good." She nodded at Ophelia, who drew her sword. Before I could turn towards her she'd sliced through my left arm.
I screamed and grasped at my bleeding stump.
"You need a fresh wound to be able to attach this limb to it. There's also a chance of rejection. This sample isn't getting any younger, but if you fail to connect with it, it will just fall off and you can walk out no worse than you came in. Alright, plus a bleeding stump, in that case."
She offered me the hand and wrist. I took it with my right hand, that had been strongly clamped onto my left limb. With an effort I brought it to my wound and began to raise my youki. I brought my youki up to 55% and then concentrated on directing it into that region. I began to visualize the parts I needed to reconnect piece by piece. It became hard to steadily control and focus the energy, so I clamped it down to only 50%.
"She's so slow. She needs more practice."
"Oh shush. She's just a trainee and not a genius like you. Besides, I'm sure her idea of practice and your idea are leagues apart."
The limb was odd. I could feel the energy inside it rise up and respond to my own. I tried to stimulate it, but it only got more quiescent in response. While the regeneration was going on well physically, if I couldn't get it to merge with my youki then I might only be getting a pound of flesh that was shaped like a hand. I needed it to connect to my youki network and pool.
"Damn you. DaMN YoU." My power was telling me what my problem was. My youki was too weak. It was like a child waving around a Claymore. It refused to respond to my measly, unqualified aura.
I brought my youki up to 60% and then 70%. I was not weak. 75%.
"Is it stimulating her aura?"
"No, I think she's just trying to break it and mix their energies. There's too big of a gap in quality."
"Clare, if you can hear me. Stop trying to brute force it."
I did hear her and a part of me took note. I pushed my aura down. It slowly shrank back to 60%.
"The second subject took two hours to bond with it and only achieved a partial mixing of energies at the point of attachment. Just let it soak in your power."
I realized it was Miranda speaking to me. Her voice was coming from a long way off, but I followed her advice.
After an hour and a half the limb was attached and my youki network had begun to merge. It was still incomplete. It felt weak and fragile like it had atrophied and required exercise to rebuild. Physically, though, it felt fine, only the youki was disturbed.
"Excellent work, Clare." Said Ophelia. Miranda was long gone. After ten minutes she had excused herself to work on another project.
"Thank you...big sis." I was too exhausted to say more. I was also embarrassed at my mistake earlier.
"I have a bit of time tomorrow. I think I'll stop by to check how your arm is doing tomorrow, little sis."
When she finished escorting me out of the Retrieval Squad's building, I offered her my left hand.
"Thank you, again. Would you care to have my first left-handed handshake in, well, many years."
She looked at the hand I offered her and then my face and then back at my hand. Then she broke into a grin. "No, I think you should save that for a friend. See you tomorrow Clare."
She turned around and disappeared back inside.
1. Priscilla (unknown epithet)
2. Kujira of the Nothingness
4. God-eye Galatea
6. Heat Haze Hilda
7. Older Sister Ophelia/The Voracious Cannibal
13. Eva
Six months ago the whole world shook.
Everyone and anyone could feel the monster awaken. The birth of a new abyssal one.
I despaired.
Jacklyn, Evelyn and even Lily tried to encourage me or lure me out of my depression. It took Selene finally seeing me, dragging me out to a practice hall and beating me bloody to cause me to begin to turn around.
In the end, she held the sword an inch from my throat and asked me what I was going to do about it. I had no answer. She threw her blade away. The sword we'd all been raised to even sleep with.
She told me next time she'll leave me to rot and be disposed of or worse. It was the pain and shame in her eyes that forced me to move. I didn't want to leave her feeling like that.
Still, I couldn't be like the rest. We all felt the wave, but none of the others could truly comprehend the magnitude of what had happened.
Teresa had fought the Silver King once. Neither had gotten serious. She just used 30% while he only partially awakened his arm. It was a spar on another level.
After that Isley jokingly begged her to never awaken. That he'd never seen a worse monster. Teresa had promised that if she awoke she'd just claim the central region and leave him and his castle alone.
Isley had never realized she'd used the match to copy his memories. I'd never touched them. If Hysteria alone could almost possess me then I wasn't getting near them with a ten foot pole.
Still, I had seen Teresa's reaction to witnessing them.
She'd called him a completed nexus. Then she'd begun training even harder than before.
I don't always understand what she means when she talks about techniques or quality vs quantity, but I understood enough in this instance.
Priscilla is beyond me.
I threw myself back into more training and killing. It was empty but I found a paradoxical satisfaction in that. Teresa had also felt empty until meeting me. She had even flirted with the idea of awakening. Dangerous thoughts, but she more than any other warrior understood the process and what lay on the other side.
I think I caused Jacklyn more headaches with how reckless I became. It didn't help that Evelyn had taken to drinking, boasting and picking fights with townspeople. She never took it too far and most had the sense to back off, but I think we were quickly burning through any good will we earned by saving our last handler.
The low note for our team was when Jacklyn got sent up to the next class to work in pairs after just three more months. We got a new girl, Candice, who seemed to have also been pushed into more advanced classes early. Some of her basics were a little sloppy, but she was still probably as good a fighter as Lily.
She also had a power to make a single target (but not herself) intangible for 3-5 seconds. It was a good defensive power. The only issue was how irregular the interval was. For a warrior the difference between 3 seconds and five was an eternity.
Still, I can't complain. It was at least more useful than mine, and she saved my life more than once by using it on me or my attacker. But she was no Jacklyn.
Lily ended up being the default leader since Candice was too shy, Evelyn too brash and I was just kind of apathetic. We recovered, and didn't lose anyone else. It helped that they sent us on fewer missions after Jacklyn left. They also added a new type of training--anti-army training.
They taught us through example how vulnerable we were to waves of arrows or javelins. If only they asked me to design the enemy tactics. My power doesn't work as well on vague enemies I don't know much about, but if you want to pick apart "Claymores" you can do it through gas attacks with the right chemicals, traps that reduce their mobility plus barrages, or either drugs or disease.
Most of us are too arrogant. No poison working on us does not mean we cannot be drugged. All it would take is a tiny ounce of awakened flesh.
Moreover, even before the organization began researching it, Leigia's infamous aura was a youki version of mankind's oldest enemy--disease. If her technique had been refined to not lose as much potency as it passed from one carrier to the next victim, then she could have been an Abyssal level entity even without awakening. Her short tenure as a number one was likely not an accident.
In any case, the organization's war games, while not a one-sided slaughter, were still cruel enough. We learned to live and die by the abilities of anyone who could create defensive walls, fortifications or smoke screen devices.
We also learned in our drills that no amount of soldiers will matter if you get the right power for the job. Twenty-two of us trainees were given a sample fort. More than half of us were on the verge of graduating like Jacklyn and many of us had powers of our own.
We were still blindsided. I realized my own and other knowledge powers only work if we can give it the right clues.
Number 10 walked right in and then walked out. She did not even need to use 10% of her youki. When she walked out twenty of the twenty two of us had fallen asleep. One brawler who had an automatic healing factor seemed to resist it naturally and the other was merely left awake to fight him.
They both reported seeing and losing to #10 after the rest of us fell. If it were not for my own ability to copy their memories and the way each other's wounds coincidentally matched up with each other's strikes, I might also have been fooled.
Afterwards, I found a couple of my favorite informants among the Organization's men to flirt with and skim the memories of. The other side was enlightening. They feared a war with one of the Abyssal Ones or the Rabonians. The loss of the number one was incredibly public. I think only the fear of the New Abyssal of the South kept everyone home. Well, that and the threat of civil war.
Prosperity was threatening to lead to war. Never before had there been a surplus large of labor and the crippling threat of the Yoma were becoming more manageable each year. Now the surplus allowed leaders to fund full-time soldiers and knight training for the masses.
Our war games were nothing but shallow copies of the ones that had sprung up in the South and West. These war games provided not just training, but an outlet to simulate a war and demonstrate either that it would be too costly to fight, or defeat was inevitable and it was best to just surrender to the dominant party's terms.
It was still a new concept, and it didn't always work. Two prominent cities in the South were rumoured to have actually gone to war over a knowledge bearer who could find Yoma.
I learned one other secret. A theory that was unpopular partly because of how pessimistic it was. I refused to believe it too. Better to live as a fool than to be crushed by reality.
***
After three more months I got an invitation to join the pilot phase of a new project. Project Geppetto sought to not only help offensive warriors who lost body parts recover. The end goal was to graft even stronger parts than the originals onto a warrior.
I hesitated at first because the offer came from the Retrieval Squad. They had a bad reputation, and I knew I was not considered useful or valuable yet to the organization. I may have been chosen simply because I had a missing appendage and was expendable.
But they didn't give me time to think. They needed an answer that day. What sold me was the second part of the project's goals--the promise of power.
When I arrived, I met #7, Older Sister Ophelia. Eva had never worked together with her on a hunt but she'd heard rumors that her power expanded upon. Ophelia was a young up and coming warrior with potential to hit the low single digits. Maybe even #2.
She was also insane.
There were two things you needed to know about her. She was obsessed with awakened beings, and she loved playing the older sister even towards older warriors. Most, agreed to play along regardless of their feelings on the matter.
"Heya, Clare. Nicetomeetcha." She greeted me with overflowing cheer. "You can call me big sis or sis or sissy-poo. That last one was a joke, though. Don't call me that."
"Uhh, sure big sis. But just to clarify, what's your real name?" I asked as I followed Ophelia into the Retrieval squad's building.
"Oh, I guess I should have led with that. I'm Ophelia Victoria, #7's my rank, and its not changing any time soon if I have anything to say about it. I'm not giving up the luckiest number ever!" Her smile was pleasant, but it was a predator's smile. All my power could come up with about her was she was too willing to take risks to become stronger. Funny it said the same to me sometimes.
"Now that I answered your question would you mind telling me your full name? I only know your first one from my crabby sis who did the paperwork on this little event."
Eva hadn't been able to confirm but her power suggested knowing her full name was a requirement to use her power. A power that seemed to affect probability in some manner. I vaguely remember Eva's power also suggested something about a knowledge type application that was biased.
Still, I couldn't just refuse to give it. That would be suspicious and I didn't want to attract anymore of her attention than I absolutely had to.
"Sure. But, Clare really is my full name. I was only given a first name."
Ophelia's vulpine smile grew then she froze.
"Oh my. Well, it's nice to meet you then, Clare. I hope we can get to know each other a lot more. It's too bad I've been so busy I haven't had much time to check the progress of all my younger siblings. If you ever need help feel free to ask." She said as she guiding me into a large hall.
Inside the hall was a deep, circular pit. An awakened corpse was strung up to the ceiling by chains attached to rods embedded in its flesh. Around it was a circular, multi-story platform to observe it and take samples from multiple areas.
"Do you like the decorations? Some new warriors are shocked or even scared when they see their first awakened being in the flesh."
I suddenly realized that, while it was interesting, I had observed it like it was a mere curiosity instead of my first time seeing an awakened being.
"Uhh, I was struck speechless." I stumbled through saying.
"Idiot." I thought at myself.
"It's alright. Only 20 meters long. She was a number 31. The big ones can reach fifty meters."
It wasn't long, but it was still impressively thick and squat. A belly ringed with horns bent downwards. A third armed projected from her back.
"Why are you so interested in Awakened Beings, Ophelia? Most warriors try to avoid getting picked for such battles, but you're-"
"Enthusiastic? I could tell you that it's important that the strong do their duty and it prevents those weaker or younger than myself from having to be fielded. But those are really just perks. In truth, I love my job. It's why I try to volunteer with the Retrieval Squad whenever possible."
I decide to try again. "Most would be unsettled at seeing a possible future for themselves."
"Let me tell you," she said dancing ahead of me. "You don't need to awaken to be a monster, and although you should avoid awakening, becoming an awakened is far from the worst possible end for a person."
With a flourish she showed me to a backroom I hadn't been able to see when I first came in. It had been directly opposite us with the awakened corpse in between blocking my view. As I tentatively walked in I felt Ophelia give me a strong shove.
"Miranda, you're new guinea pig has arrived." She sang.
"Ophelia, you really shouldn't call your younger sisters guinea pigs." Said a woman in a white coat over form-fitting white armor. She was not wearing the traditional silver pauldrons of a full warrior, but I could feel from her aura that she was one, and an impressively strong one too.
"They're my little sisters outside of here. But in here they're your guinea pigs. No point dressing it up."
She sighed and then turned to me. "Hello, Clare right? My name is Miranda number 42."
What?
"Ahh, they don't advertise it, but aside from the 40 active warriors who see combat there are a number of non-combat related positions. For example, number 43 has an ability that lets her control nitrogen. Its commercial applications are more valuable than her combat prowess, so earlier this year she was demoted to #43. She has not taken it well. I think they should just renumber us. Give us non-combatants negative numbers or something, but I suppose that might just be my ego talking."
It struck me then. The thing that was wrong. "Your hair is black." In some of the handlers memories I had seen her and assumed she wasn't a warrior because of her hair color. Females working in the organization were very rare. Certainly unheard of among the handlers, but for a talented scientist I had thought they'd just made an exception.
Now that I could feel her aura I realized they'd made a bigger exception than I expected. Her aura was bright and vicious.
"Ahh, an invention of mine. Still in its trial phase so don't get your hopes up. Anyway, you're not here to hear me talk about myself. You've accepted a position as subject #3 in project Geppetto. Before we go any further you should see this."
She brought me around to a cabinet, and pulled out a bucket filled with a purple liquid. She immediately stuck her hand in and drew out a hand and wrist. There was about two inches of forearm too, and beneath the liquid dripping off its end I saw an ebony bone.
It was a left hand just like the one I'd lost.
"I don't believe in forcing my experiments onto others."
"Right?" Mentioned Ophelia sarcastically.
"Oh, shush you." She warned. "Anyway, I'm going to give you one last opportunity to back out. If you do so this goes back in the bucket, you'll go back to your squad, and as long as you keep quiet about everything you've seen today you can pretend none of this ever happened."
"And if I agree?"
"I slap this on your stump, and then you'll be visited by a worker periodically to report about what its like to have a single digit appendage."
"I'm not going to freak out or ask questions about where it came from. I'm ready."
"Are you? You really should ask where this came from? After all, this isn't just a normal single digit appendage. This was harvested from the body of an awakened being by the woman behind you. Impressively, she cut it off before it could even transform."
I turned to see Ophelia lightly smirking.
"This isn't just a warrior's hand." Continued Miranda. "It's a hand that was once part of a hybrid that utilized 100% of her youki. It may have unusual properties, especially when matched to a warrior who has not awakened." She paused to give me time to digest that.
"You said I was going to be subject number 3. What happened to #1 and #2?"
"Number 2 experienced a small change in her diet. She eats three times as much now, and has reported cravings. Subject number 1 awakened one week after the transplant, but her sample was collected by a less competent fighter. It showed traces from its original holder's awakened form since it had just begun to transform into an awakened form before it was removed."
"That might not have been the issue. Just give the girl the raw numbers on her odds. It's A 50-50 gamble."
Miranda frowned at that, but didn't disagree.
I wanted to take it anyway. I knew the goal was power exceeding the original body part, but I had expected just a limb from a high ranked warrior. Perhaps a traitor or deserter. This was much more dangerous.
And yet, it also had so much more potential. Could I partially awaken the limb while maintaining my human mind? I had no idea. No one had ever tried something like this before. I was certain subject #2 was playing it very, very safe given what happened to her predecessor.
"Can you answer one question? Why me?"
Miranda's eyebrows rose. "You do realize Ophelia only lopped off a left arm before it transformed. While quite a few warriors lose limbs many lose them at the elbow or shoulder. There were only two of you that had lost a left hand. Although, I think the other girl had a bit more of her wrist left."
"And was I chosen because I was the less useful one?"
She laughed at that. "Not quite. You were chosen because your old handler Morel highly recommended you."
I was shocked. I hadn't seen Morel since we'd escaped all those months ago. I half expected he'd been executed for leaking a secret during the torture, or assigned to the coldest no man's land in rural Alphonse for getting captured in the first place.
"So what will it be? I do have another candidate I can offer this to. If both of you turn me down plenty of colorheads would lop off their own left hand at the chance to get power and make something of themselves."
"I accept." I said.
"Good." She nodded at Ophelia, who drew her sword. Before I could turn towards her she'd sliced through my left arm.
I screamed and grasped at my bleeding stump.
"You need a fresh wound to be able to attach this limb to it. There's also a chance of rejection. This sample isn't getting any younger, but if you fail to connect with it, it will just fall off and you can walk out no worse than you came in. Alright, plus a bleeding stump, in that case."
She offered me the hand and wrist. I took it with my right hand, that had been strongly clamped onto my left limb. With an effort I brought it to my wound and began to raise my youki. I brought my youki up to 55% and then concentrated on directing it into that region. I began to visualize the parts I needed to reconnect piece by piece. It became hard to steadily control and focus the energy, so I clamped it down to only 50%.
"She's so slow. She needs more practice."
"Oh shush. She's just a trainee and not a genius like you. Besides, I'm sure her idea of practice and your idea are leagues apart."
The limb was odd. I could feel the energy inside it rise up and respond to my own. I tried to stimulate it, but it only got more quiescent in response. While the regeneration was going on well physically, if I couldn't get it to merge with my youki then I might only be getting a pound of flesh that was shaped like a hand. I needed it to connect to my youki network and pool.
"Damn you. DaMN YoU." My power was telling me what my problem was. My youki was too weak. It was like a child waving around a Claymore. It refused to respond to my measly, unqualified aura.
I brought my youki up to 60% and then 70%. I was not weak. 75%.
"Is it stimulating her aura?"
"No, I think she's just trying to break it and mix their energies. There's too big of a gap in quality."
"Clare, if you can hear me. Stop trying to brute force it."
I did hear her and a part of me took note. I pushed my aura down. It slowly shrank back to 60%.
"The second subject took two hours to bond with it and only achieved a partial mixing of energies at the point of attachment. Just let it soak in your power."
I realized it was Miranda speaking to me. Her voice was coming from a long way off, but I followed her advice.
After an hour and a half the limb was attached and my youki network had begun to merge. It was still incomplete. It felt weak and fragile like it had atrophied and required exercise to rebuild. Physically, though, it felt fine, only the youki was disturbed.
"Excellent work, Clare." Said Ophelia. Miranda was long gone. After ten minutes she had excused herself to work on another project.
"Thank you...big sis." I was too exhausted to say more. I was also embarrassed at my mistake earlier.
"I have a bit of time tomorrow. I think I'll stop by to check how your arm is doing tomorrow, little sis."
When she finished escorting me out of the Retrieval Squad's building, I offered her my left hand.
"Thank you, again. Would you care to have my first left-handed handshake in, well, many years."
She looked at the hand I offered her and then my face and then back at my hand. Then she broke into a grin. "No, I think you should save that for a friend. See you tomorrow Clare."
She turned around and disappeared back inside.
«***»
2. Kujira of the Nothingness
4. God-eye Galatea
6. Heat Haze Hilda
7. Older Sister Ophelia/The Voracious Cannibal
13. Eva
The key number to avoid awakening for a warrior is to keep the youki below 80%. If you're unskilled you should keep it even lower.
The Organization was always careful to hide #10, who in case you don't know is their anti-warrior specialist and the ace in the hole against rebellion. The fact that she's now being advertised and used as a scare tactic probably means they have another reliable ace in the hole.
An interesting thing to note about Claymore universe is that there's so much fighting going on none of the active warriors with powers are at risk of being driven to extremely excessive danger for the sake of conflict. We may see a rise in reckless behavior from other groups, but they basically are getting their fill of conflict and fighting without the shard having to do much behavioral modifications. That may not hold for number #41 and onwards, though.
I also find it amusing Ophelia is obsessed with her lucky number 7 given in Canon she was #4, which was a terribly unlucky number in many Eastern cultures.
By the way, Leigia is a number one who is a homage to the Leigia who appears in Nanozom's Silver Eyed Angel (although my version will only share the same name and rank not abilities or history). I highly recommend it for amazing world building and expansion of the mechanics of youki. It's a slow starter since at first the author tries to match some of the plot arcs, but the author makes a number of wonderful improvements that multiply and build over time (e.g. instead of Raki we get a Priscilla-like Cthulhu and instead of Jean we get an Awakened Being companion). After reading that fanfiction, I realized the series missed a wonderful opportunity by never displaying an aberrant Awakened Being who didn't wish to kill or eat flesh and blood. The battle with one's nature and the MC's need to reevaluate how she treats Awakened Beings is a wonderful wrench to throw into things. After all, characters who are evil "just because" are boring.
The Organization was always careful to hide #10, who in case you don't know is their anti-warrior specialist and the ace in the hole against rebellion. The fact that she's now being advertised and used as a scare tactic probably means they have another reliable ace in the hole.
An interesting thing to note about Claymore universe is that there's so much fighting going on none of the active warriors with powers are at risk of being driven to extremely excessive danger for the sake of conflict. We may see a rise in reckless behavior from other groups, but they basically are getting their fill of conflict and fighting without the shard having to do much behavioral modifications. That may not hold for number #41 and onwards, though.
I also find it amusing Ophelia is obsessed with her lucky number 7 given in Canon she was #4, which was a terribly unlucky number in many Eastern cultures.
By the way, Leigia is a number one who is a homage to the Leigia who appears in Nanozom's Silver Eyed Angel (although my version will only share the same name and rank not abilities or history). I highly recommend it for amazing world building and expansion of the mechanics of youki. It's a slow starter since at first the author tries to match some of the plot arcs, but the author makes a number of wonderful improvements that multiply and build over time (e.g. instead of Raki we get a Priscilla-like Cthulhu and instead of Jean we get an Awakened Being companion). After reading that fanfiction, I realized the series missed a wonderful opportunity by never displaying an aberrant Awakened Being who didn't wish to kill or eat flesh and blood. The battle with one's nature and the MC's need to reevaluate how she treats Awakened Beings is a wonderful wrench to throw into things. After all, characters who are evil "just because" are boring.
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Interlude: Dauf and Riful
- Location
- CA
Interlude: Dauf and Riful
(Dauf)
Dauf was in trouble. Ever since the appearance of these "God-touched," his sweetheart had been in a frenzy collecting people right and left. She even started building a city to hold her new toys.
"Crush her!"
Her toys that were rebelling again!
"Roaaarrghhh"
Riful told him to put down the rebellion again. But this time Rose was leading the rebels.
"Just please give up, Sweetheart. I need to defeat you so I can fight the rebels like you told me to."
"YOU IDIOT! Zaki has you brainwashed. You didn't take him out first like I told you to."
"I would have but they were all Zaki."
"That's not an acceptable excuse." Said Riful as she concentrated and stretched her senses. An instant later she stabbed through two buildings and separated Zaki's head from his body. Her aim was perfectly precise thanks to the implant Zaki and other high risk soldiers received. Each implant was made from a fragment of his Youki rods but with slight deviations in potency to make them distinguishable.
Huh?
Why was I-
Riful picked me up with several appendages and hurled me at Rose's 40 meter tall form.
I crashed into her with my butt. When she tried to puff some pollen into my face I quickly bashed her with some hardened youki rods.
"You're why Riful is so mad at me." I bellow.
I tear all of the petals and vines surrounding her core. Before I can land a final blow I'm stopped.
"Wait." Said Riful. "Rose, I suppose you were the ringleader of this group. I'm embarrassed you thought this would be enough. Do I look like the type of fool who would just stand there and wait for Zaki to get complete control?"
"Master..." She begged pitifully.
"Let me put her out of her misery." I suggested.
"No you idiot. Someone put her up to it. They probably want me to execute a third of my forces or this was an assassination attempt aimed at you given I've been having you handle these rebellions." She says while eyeing the several others, who had been fighting with them. They have all fallen to the ground and are no longer fighting.
Huh?
"I need information on who's behind this so take her to my dungeon, but keep her alive."
"Okay, Riful."
"Oh yes, and Dauf." She said sweetly.
Uh oh.
"Yes?"
"What did I say the time you screwed up and killed that power gifter."
"If I screw up again you're dumping me."
"And what did you do today?"
"But, but...I can do better."
"You always say that. We're through Dauf. I'm going to send some spies to check if Isley is dating anyone."
"NOOO! Please, please take me back. I'll do anything.
If you want take another lover then fine, but please don't dump me. I promise to do better."
"WHAT?" Riful huffed and looked down on him with true fury on her face. "You mean to suggest I take on half a man as a lover. A man who can only half satisfy a woman deserves to be with me."
"Uhhh, no?"
"Just go Dauf." She said with a sigh. "Take care of Rose and then leave me alone for the day." She turns to the remaining rebels.
I carry Rose on my back. I punch her periodically to vent my steam but give her time to regenerate after each blow. After only three strikes she reverts back to human form, and I secure her to a table. Then I left the keep and went down into the forest.
***
(Riful)
With a sigh Riful watched Dauf go.
"Tough love, Dauf. Tough love."
She turned back to Rose and examined her like a flower in her garden that had become diseased. Still beautiful but her role was now to help her protect other flowers.
"As useful as you have been for Dauf, it's time for you to spill your secrets. Relax, since you are going to die no matter what there is no possibility that you could be punished for what you tell me. Also, while I am angry that I lost a useful piece like Zaki, I place that blame at the feet of whoever came up with this plan, not you."
I stand and slowly approach the table on which she is tied spread-eagle. Her clothes lost in the transformation to her true form have not been replaced. She is already entering this battle of wills at a disadvantage.
"Oh yes, and if some 'God-touch's blessing' is controlling you or keeping your mouth shut then my apologies. This is going to be needlessly painful and an utterly pointless exercise in the end."
"Please." She whispered.
"What's that?"
"Ashley's power. Truth." She forced out of her cracked lips despite her collapsed lung.
"Ahh, you want me to do this the easy way. Yes, Ashley or even Felicity, if I feed her enough, could probably help me get to the bottom of this far quicker, but let's leave that as a last resort. After all, I have a lot of frustration to get off my chest right now, and I don't want my friends to have to see me until I've vented them all out."
"I'll tell you what, I'm not unreasonable." I say as she whimpers. "If you fully cooperate then after Ashley has checked, I'll give you an easy death and take all my frustrations out on the corpses of you and Zaki."
I hope she doesn't take it. I give her a second to ponder that offer, which she blows. She's babbling now about Chronos and Lars working with...that's stupid. They're both already dead.
A thought occurs to me. Rose is just muscle to help manage the others but maybe this will be the day she becomes more than that.
"Okay, here's a third option. I think you'll like this best of all. Maybe if you awaken an especially useful power, I'll put you on a chain and let you live. I wonder if the fact that your life is riding on it will help you awaken with a unique or valuable ability." Perfect, now there is even a way for my opponent to not lose. Now the game can truly begin.
(Dauf)
Dauf was in trouble. Ever since the appearance of these "God-touched," his sweetheart had been in a frenzy collecting people right and left. She even started building a city to hold her new toys.
"Crush her!"
Her toys that were rebelling again!
"Roaaarrghhh"
Riful told him to put down the rebellion again. But this time Rose was leading the rebels.
"Just please give up, Sweetheart. I need to defeat you so I can fight the rebels like you told me to."
"YOU IDIOT! Zaki has you brainwashed. You didn't take him out first like I told you to."
"I would have but they were all Zaki."
"That's not an acceptable excuse." Said Riful as she concentrated and stretched her senses. An instant later she stabbed through two buildings and separated Zaki's head from his body. Her aim was perfectly precise thanks to the implant Zaki and other high risk soldiers received. Each implant was made from a fragment of his Youki rods but with slight deviations in potency to make them distinguishable.
Huh?
Why was I-
Riful picked me up with several appendages and hurled me at Rose's 40 meter tall form.
I crashed into her with my butt. When she tried to puff some pollen into my face I quickly bashed her with some hardened youki rods.
"You're why Riful is so mad at me." I bellow.
I tear all of the petals and vines surrounding her core. Before I can land a final blow I'm stopped.
"Wait." Said Riful. "Rose, I suppose you were the ringleader of this group. I'm embarrassed you thought this would be enough. Do I look like the type of fool who would just stand there and wait for Zaki to get complete control?"
"Master..." She begged pitifully.
"Let me put her out of her misery." I suggested.
"No you idiot. Someone put her up to it. They probably want me to execute a third of my forces or this was an assassination attempt aimed at you given I've been having you handle these rebellions." She says while eyeing the several others, who had been fighting with them. They have all fallen to the ground and are no longer fighting.
Huh?
"I need information on who's behind this so take her to my dungeon, but keep her alive."
"Okay, Riful."
"Oh yes, and Dauf." She said sweetly.
Uh oh.
"Yes?"
"What did I say the time you screwed up and killed that power gifter."
"If I screw up again you're dumping me."
"And what did you do today?"
"But, but...I can do better."
"You always say that. We're through Dauf. I'm going to send some spies to check if Isley is dating anyone."
"NOOO! Please, please take me back. I'll do anything.
If you want take another lover then fine, but please don't dump me. I promise to do better."
"WHAT?" Riful huffed and looked down on him with true fury on her face. "You mean to suggest I take on half a man as a lover. A man who can only half satisfy a woman deserves to be with me."
"Uhhh, no?"
"Just go Dauf." She said with a sigh. "Take care of Rose and then leave me alone for the day." She turns to the remaining rebels.
I carry Rose on my back. I punch her periodically to vent my steam but give her time to regenerate after each blow. After only three strikes she reverts back to human form, and I secure her to a table. Then I left the keep and went down into the forest.
***
(Riful)
With a sigh Riful watched Dauf go.
"Tough love, Dauf. Tough love."
She turned back to Rose and examined her like a flower in her garden that had become diseased. Still beautiful but her role was now to help her protect other flowers.
"As useful as you have been for Dauf, it's time for you to spill your secrets. Relax, since you are going to die no matter what there is no possibility that you could be punished for what you tell me. Also, while I am angry that I lost a useful piece like Zaki, I place that blame at the feet of whoever came up with this plan, not you."
I stand and slowly approach the table on which she is tied spread-eagle. Her clothes lost in the transformation to her true form have not been replaced. She is already entering this battle of wills at a disadvantage.
"Oh yes, and if some 'God-touch's blessing' is controlling you or keeping your mouth shut then my apologies. This is going to be needlessly painful and an utterly pointless exercise in the end."
"Please." She whispered.
"What's that?"
"Ashley's power. Truth." She forced out of her cracked lips despite her collapsed lung.
"Ahh, you want me to do this the easy way. Yes, Ashley or even Felicity, if I feed her enough, could probably help me get to the bottom of this far quicker, but let's leave that as a last resort. After all, I have a lot of frustration to get off my chest right now, and I don't want my friends to have to see me until I've vented them all out."
"I'll tell you what, I'm not unreasonable." I say as she whimpers. "If you fully cooperate then after Ashley has checked, I'll give you an easy death and take all my frustrations out on the corpses of you and Zaki."
I hope she doesn't take it. I give her a second to ponder that offer, which she blows. She's babbling now about Chronos and Lars working with...that's stupid. They're both already dead.
A thought occurs to me. Rose is just muscle to help manage the others but maybe this will be the day she becomes more than that.
"Okay, here's a third option. I think you'll like this best of all. Maybe if you awaken an especially useful power, I'll put you on a chain and let you live. I wonder if the fact that your life is riding on it will help you awaken with a unique or valuable ability." Perfect, now there is even a way for my opponent to not lose. Now the game can truly begin.
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