002 | Claws in the Sky

[priscilla]

Summary First appearance: Rubel Guess they don't use those brains much anyway. A village chief thanks Clare for arriving to handle their yoma problem, and offers her a bag of money. Clare immediately lops his head in half, shocking the crowd. But just before he dies, the chief's fingers turn to claws, and his eyes go gold, revealing him as a yoma who intended to lure her closer for the reward and then slice her to pieces. Clare leaves, and is next seen bathing in a waterfall. Suddenly Rubel appears. As it turns out, Rubel is Clare's 'handler' from the Organization, and has recently come from collecting the money from her last job. He teases her for trying to clean the blood smell from her body, as it's impossible since her body produces that scent on its own. Rubel assigns her to a village job, where 27 people have died in one month. This is unusual, prompting Rubel to note that either the yoma is unusually hungry or .. there's more than one of them. She is intended to wait for a group to take on the foe, but as they won't be arriving for another five days, Clare goes on her own to prevent further deaths. Meet Rubel, the face of mystery. When she arrives, she finds the village seems deserted - everyone is hiding inside due to the recent deaths. She also finds an overconfident yoma smiling at her. She's quickly surrounded by four of the creatures, and just as she realizes she could be in trouble, a fifth arrives - winged and descending from the sky. A battle ensues, in which Clare easily kills three of the yoma, observing that she now understands that they work together because they're unusually weak. The winged yoma attempts to flee, but Clare cuts down the last grounded one, and then uses her yoki to fling her sword and cut down the flying one, completing the job. She then leaves, meeting Rubel outside the village. Plot foreshadowing? I think so. Rubel says she's quite noble for risking so much against such odds and asks if, when she remembers her old self, she's drawn to help. Clare, however, maintains that she simply likes finishing jobs quickly. Notes and Comments 01. ...yoma appear to be capable of surviving for short times even with their head lopped in half. This comes up a lot, especially with awakened beings, which is just. Strange, but notable. It also makes one question whether a Claymore like Deneve might be able to survive an injured skull/brain injury as well. 02. This is the first mention of a Claymore's natural scent. It doesn't, however, answer whether the scent comes from their skin or from, as has been sometimes speculated, their stigmata scars. In the latter case, the stigmata may be less scars than open wounds - which has been hinted at a few times, as well (e.g. Clare's asking Teresa if they continue to hurt). Look, a glider! 03. It's also the first indication that there are different power levels for yoma - and the difference can be quite considerable. In Doga, Clare had to power up just to defeat Zaki, whereas here she takes down five weaker yoma simultaneously with little relative difficulty... despite the flying yoma - a concept which also makes its debut in this scene. 04. Rubel makes numerous veiled references to Clare's tragic past in the days before her origin flashback (the Teresa arc). This chapter contains the first of them. In any case, this scene shows Clare to be stubborn and driven even the face of overwhelming obstacles - a trait that recurs over and over again throughout the series, as well as forms the basis of her central quest of revenge. Fact-Checking N/A ☩ ☩ ☩ Back