003 | Memory of a Witch

[priscilla]

Summary First appearance: N/A A man in heavy desert clothes seems to be crossing a... well, desert. He collapses... and is found by the silhouette of Clare. Raki returns from his trip to the Matrix. Later, Raki awakens in bed with an innkeeper trying to give him food. It turns out he's in Egon village, and his stay and food have both been paid for by a Claymore. The innkeeper doesn't know where the woman went, so Raki scarfs down some bread and runs out to find her, hoping it was Clare. In town, a villager tells him that a Claymore was looking for him, and then headed into the forest, so he takes off to find her. However, when he reaches the forest, he finds another woman entirely - a long haired claymore without a sigil. She claims that she took a liking to him and "wanted to make (him) (hers)," explaining that Claymores are kindhearted. Her use of the word tips Raki off, however, and he shoves her away saying that he knows warriors never call themselves by that name. Never trust an adult who hits on a 12 year old boy. The "Claymore," actually a yoma, thanks him for the information and then takes him captive. As it turns out, this yoma was Clare's next execution target, and she plans to use Raki as a shield against Clare, who arrives at this time. The yoma threatens to kill Raki if Clare doesn't back down, and says that she never believed a hostage could stop a Claymore from following through on their job, until she saw Clare bringing Raki into the town so carefully - that's when she changed her mind and realized he could be useful against her. She suggests that perhaps Clare had a little brother as a human, and Raki reminds her of him. Clare tosses her sword aside, shocking Raki and causing the yoma to toss him away and go after her. The yoma impales Clare through the gut, assuming this will kill her. However, Clare grabs the yoma and pulls her off the cliff, landing beside the discarded sword, which Clare then uses to hack off the yoma's arm and then cut her head open. With the yoma dead, Clare yanks the arm from her gut with some difficulty, and then uses her yoki to partially heal her wound. Raki, blaming himself, apologizes for getting her into that spot, but Clare claims that she didn't act to save him, but only because her strategy was the best one to defeat the yoma. She asks Raki why he's so far from his village, and whether he was thrown out. Clare, too, knows of the crapsack. More on this in about 9 chapters. She remembers her parents' death at the hands of a yoma in her brother's form. He then turned on her (the manner of his attack on her is unclear - from their positioning it could be interpreted as either an attempt to kill her or rape her, or both). At that time, a soldier arrived and lopped his head off. While she was saved from the yoma, she was not saved from her village's suspicion. Her sole survivor status inspired both sympathy and fear from her fellow villagers, who suspected she might be a yoma, herself. This is all remembered as Clare silently awaits her answer from Raki. Raki claims he was not thrown out, but indicates that he was suspected of being a yoma, even so. Clare then asks whether he knows how to cook, and offers to take him with her on her travels until they find a town where he'd like to stay. Raki accepts, and so begins their journey! Notes and Comments 01. This scene features a yoma that disguises itself as a Claymore. It's unclear whether it was a Claymore infected with a yoma parasite, or a human who simply resembled a Claymore and managed to get ahold of a Claymore uniform. The latter seems more likely, but the fact that her eyes were silver instead of human colored or gold is a bit weird. The anime lists her as "awakened claymore," but given her power level and appearance, it seems unlikely that she is an actual awakened claymore. Fact-Checking N/A