Chapter 5 - Mistakes

Raki took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

He had parted ways with Galatea 20 minutes prior, but he was still a little perturbed. When he had come out of the house of the second victim, she had looked like she had seen a ghost for a fleeting moment, before a friendly smile once again stole over her face. Coupled with her rushed behaviour, it made him a little uneasy.

‘This is more important though’ He told himself when he finally worked up the courage to knock on the door that had been silently mocking him for the last 5 minutes.

A few seconds later a middle aged woman opened the door and the by now familiar sensation that signalled yoki close by became an almost tangible thing.

“How may I help you?” The woman asked neutrally. Her face was slightly haggard and her short brown hair looked untidy.

Raki did not answer, his mind busy recalling the last time he had felt this kind of thing so strongly. The youma was somewhere in that house, no doubt. Maybe it was standing in front of him even now!

“Hello? Why did you come here?” The woman asked him again, slightly irritated.

“Ah…excuse my rudeness. I was wondering if you knew anything about the youma attacks that happened these last three days.” He got out finally, managing to sound only slightly nervous instead of scared.

Instead of answering him, the woman started crying all of a sudden.

“Miss? Miss? Are you okay?” he asked as while gently touching her shoulder.

Before he knew it, she had wrapped her arms around him and was crying against his shoulder.”…that thing.....it killed my husband!”

Raki winced when he heard that. Here the poor woman was crying her heart out to a complete stranger because her husband was killed and he had suspected her of being a youma.

The two of them were getting more than a few curios glances from other people, so he quickly moved the unresisting woman into her home and closed the door.

The room beyond the door was about 4 by 4 and served as a kitchen and living room at once.

A narrow stairway to the left led to the second story of the small house. Separated from the main room by a thin wooden wall was another room on the ground-level.

That was everything Raki managed to take in while seating the woman at the kitchen table, all the while softly patting her back.

Finally she calmed down enough to let go of him. While she wiped away her remaining tears he sat down opposite of her without saying anything.

“Thank you” She said quietly and gave him a brittle smile. “Now, what did you want to know?”

“I wanted to know how many people are currently living in your house.” Raki said just as quietly, afraid he would send her into another crying fit.

“Aside from me, only my children and my father are living here. My father is upstairs in bed. It seems he caught a cold three days ago, so we should not bother him, but you can meet Charlotte and Vincent if you want.”

“If it does not bother you too much...”

“Nonsense, I bet they will be delighted to meet you.” She said with genuine mirth in her eyes. “Vincent, Charlotte! Come out, there’s someone here who wants to meet you”

A moment later a girl and a boy, both no older than 10, came out of the room adjoining the living room. The two of them stepped in front of him and bowed slightly. “Nice to meet you, Mister.”

Their eyes looked empty, but something lurked beneath the surface that Raki could not pinpoint. Had he looked that miserable after losing his family? He hoped not.

“No need to be so formal you two. I’m not your teacher.” Raki said in hopes of lightening the mood in the room.

Both, Chartlotte and Vincent, did not change their posture at all. Their eyes kept darting about the room.

Finally, Raki realized their behaviour had nothing to do with formality, but with fear.

He had almost forgotten the youma.

“Did any of you meet anyone new the last three days?” He asked, hoping to keep up the charade of curious investigator. If he did not ask questions it would seem strange and may even alert the youma.

“No one saw anyone new or strange before this happened, or did you?” Their mother answered, and a round of headshaking ensued. Vincent had looked ready to say something, though, and Raki tensed slightly; obviously, the mother was hiding something.

Before he could investigate further the creaking of the stairway announced a new arrival. “What’s this entire ruckus down here about, Karla?” A wizened voice said, followed by a shift in the yoki that Raki could not grasp.

Was it the youma?

Feeling vulnerable with his back to the new arrival, Raki stood up to greet the grandfather of the house. “Please excuse my intrusion, sir. It was not my intention to disturb you like this.”

The man on the stairs cracked a strange smile, which caused his already pronounced wrinkles to become even deeper. With the cane in his right hand to support himself and his dangerously thin body, it was hard to believe that he could hurt a fly.

“Don’t worry lad. Better yet, watch out for yourself!“ He said, while gesturing over to the woman Raki now knew to be Karla. ”Her husband isn’t even dead three days and she’s already is looking for fresh meat”

Raki gaped, shocked at the crass statement. Here the woman and the children had just lost their husband and father, and this geezer had the gall to joke about it!

“Father!” Karla said, outraged and stood up abruptly. Vincent and Charlotte took the opportunity to scramble back to their room. “I’m not that bad!”

Her announcement was accompanied with another shift in the yoki he could feel floating about the room and Raki quickly forgot his outrage over her father’s crass comment.

There was no doubt about it, the youma was in the room with him…but who was it? Her father said Karla was looking for fresh meat. Maybe he knew she was the youma and was talking to her this way because he knew it would not bother her?

The shift in the surroundings, which had accompanied Karla’s outcry, gave credence to that assumption. After all, Claire had told him that emotions did influence the flow of ones yoki.

The flow had shifted when the old man had come down the stairs as well, though. Maybe it was the old geezer?

Even while these thoughts were rushing trough his head, Raki could feel his panic rising with the realization that he could not say with certainty who was the youma.

‘It wasn’t supposed to be like this’ Raki thought frantically, while standing in between the sick old man and his grief stricken daughter. In his desperation, one of his many conversations with Claire flashed through his mind.

“Youma are not simple beasts. It is not unheard of for them take on human children as their own so they have an even better alibi.”

Charlotte and Vincent were both looking out of their room with fearful eyes. It was obvious they knew who the youma was, but that did not help him now.

“Youma are very good actors. No matter who it is, don’t ever assume they are innocent. Especially sick people or persons close to the known victims should be prime-suspects.”

One was sick and one was a newly christened widow. Dammit, which one was it?!

“In the end, the only way to identify a youma for sure is by sensing its yoki.”

“You look even sicker than I feel, young fellow. I think you need to be taken care of.” The old man spoke with a voice that sounded like old sandpaper and contained a slight malicious lilt.

It had to be him!

But maybe he was a little cranky, because of his sickness?!

“Get back to bed father. I’ll give our guest what he needs.”

What he needed? What could Raki need? ; Aside from finding the youma? Maybe it was her, not the old man?

‘Shut up!’ Raki told his racing mind.

His thoughts silent for the moment, he closed his eyes and forced out everything but the crawling sensation that seemed to envelop his whole body.

‘Which one is it?’

The old man was speaking again and Raki delved even deeper into his inner world. The yoki swirled around him in chaotic patterns, covering all the colours of the rainbow.

What he was looking for was not there, and he pushed outward, trying to see beyond the chaotic pattern.

‘Which one is it?!?’

In the distance a dull throb tried to get his attention, but he forced it away. He wanted…no NEEDED to see more clearly! Crunching his brow in concentration, Raki gave one last push and for a single moment, the bubble burst, enabling him a brief glimpse of the world beyond his own body.

‘THERE!’ He thought in elation, and his eyes snapped open, even while he drew his Claymore.

“What …” Whatever the old man wanted to say stuck in his throat when Raki’s sword whistled through the air.

Barely missing the old man’s greying hair Raki shifted on his feet, fighting to stay on his feet. The blade moved according to his will and bit into Karla’s left side, her face a study of shock.

The sword split her midsection from left to right until it burst out the other side.

Her lifeless body started dropping before his Claymore stopped moving. Her upper part, cleanly separated from her legs and belly, hit the chair she had been sitting on with a wet squelch while the rest toppled harmlessly to the ground, giving off a thud as well.

To his left Vincent and Chartlotte were screaming their mother’s name.

For one horrifying moment he thought he had made a mistake. Why else would the children, who no doubt knew who the youma was, scream like that?

Then the unremarkable features of the young woman twisted and bloated, her fair skin turning a sickly mix of blue and brown, even while her inner organs were slowly dripping down the chair and pooling on the ground.

‘I did it’ Raki thought in elation.

It lasted for but a moment though, because the dull throb he had only registered on a distant level returned full force as the headache from hell, causing his knees to buckle.

At the same time a strong pulse of yoki, which dwarfed anything he had felt up to now in this house, erupted behind him.

The realization that two youma had taken up residence in this house hit him like a pail of ice water.

His body reacted without thought, almost like it was trying to dodge said ice water, even if it was a figment of his imagination and he lurched forward from his kneeling position.

His head hit one of the table’s legs with full force and the short spike of pain, coupled with the raging inferno in his skull, was enough to send him into oblivion…

Miria walked at a brisk pace. It had already been a month since they had parted ways with Raki and so far their search for Isley was not going well.

Aside from an unwelcome encounter with Riful there was no sign of awakened beings much less an abyssal in the south.

2 days back they had stopped at a village while using the suppression pills, when the first real lead had appeared. Apparently a local youth had returned from visiting some distant relatives who lived nearly 2 weeks of travel away and brought news of their gruesome passing. The talkative innkeeper had been more than willing to tell them anything they wanted to know when they asked why it was ‘gruesome’.

The way his eyes had undressed them while he talked had severely tried Miria’s patience, though, and she had been a little short tempered since then. That aside, the information was actually useful. It seemed the village the youth had come from suffered from an infestation of very strong youma along with over a dozen other towns and villages in the same vicinity.

Very strong youma usually equalled an awakened, though, and it did not make sense for them to roam free for any length of time so obviously now that the organisation was actively hunting them down.

That meant something there made her former masters cautious and Miria knew only one thing was strong enough to scare the organisation.

An Abyssal.

While unconfirmed and wildly speculative, it was their only lead and everyone had decided that it was worth a shot.

The search was bearing fruits finally and Miria should have been happy about that, but at the moment she was pissed, more than anything else.

To her left Cynthia and Tabitha were keeping pace, while Yuma and Deneve were walking to her right. Claire and Helen brought up the rear.

“I can’t wait for this to be over. Just thinking about the way Raki twists his hips just right when slamming his **** into my ***** gets me hot. And when he’s licking that one place behind my ear at the same time…Ooooh, I can’t wait!”

“I don’t like that. It distracts from the act itself. His mouth ******* on my ****** while he is ******* me is far more pleasurable.”

Miria’s left eyebrow started twitching despite her best efforts.

The conversation Helen and Claire were currently having was unfortunately not the exception but the norm for the last 2 weeks. Without Raki present to sate the desires his company had awakened in these two they had turned to discussing the sex life they missed so much openly…and down to the tiniest detail.

In the beginning it was mostly Helen who had tried to steer the conversation in that direction, but to Miria’s consternation Claire had lost whatever resistance she had mustered about 2 days ago.

Ever since that day Miria had to censor every second word these two said just to keep her sanity. Deneve did not show any outward sign to being bothered with the things she heard from behind, but Miria suspected the other warrior had long since learned to completely zone out Helen’s foul mouth.

Yuma, Cynthia and Tabitha were not so fortunate, though, and Miria feared their bodies would stop working with all the blood that was rushing to their heads for most of the journey.

“You know, now that I think about it….after being away from us for so long Raki has to be pretty hard up for some *****. I’ve always wanted to try getting ****** up the ***, maybe this is our chance to convince him to do it when meet up again?” That comment from Helen was enough for Cynthia to go cross eyed and for Tabitha to stumble.

It was also the last straw for Miria. “I swear to god, if I hear another mention of *****,*******,******* or any other sexual reference I’ll shove my sword up your *****, is that clear??!”

Rubbing her temples to ward off the headache Miria felt coming despite the sudden blessed silence, she swore herself that she would hit Raki _hard_ for the indignity of listening to these two.

‘Then again, I’m somewhat at fault here as well...’ she admitted silently, when she remembered her part in bringing the strange little love triangle between Helen, Claire and Raki into existence.

It had been 3 weeks since Helen’s birthday party, a tradition the boisterous Claymore insisted on observing even though none of the half-youma even remembered their specific birth date. To that end Helen had simply made up a date for everyone while making sure to arrange every date of celebration with equal distance so ‘they had something to look forward to, no matter the season’ as she had said.

Generally Helen was always in a good mood after any kind of celebration, but the shit eating grin that had been present on Helen’s face ever since her birthday was disconcerting. Helen’s unnatural bliss coupled with the severe blush Raki seemed to sport all day long made a conclusion very obvious.

Not that Helen was very discreet about it either, demanding private training with the boy every day only to return with an expression that screamed ‘satisfied’ to Miria’s observant eyes.

In her bliss, Helen had not noticed the strain her actions put on the group, while Miria had to watch in dismay as the interactions between Claire and Raki became increasingly strained. Claire was surprisingly naïve about things like this and Miria was sure she had not yet realized what was going on, but the guilt that was eating Raki from the inside out was as plain as day for anyone who cared to look. No doubt, being in Claire’s presence only made it worse, so the boy had started avoiding the woman, which in turn put a damper on Claire’s mood because she thought she had done something wrong.

On the day Miria had agreed to take Raki in, she had already foreseen a situation like this and now that it was here she had to deal with it before their closely knit unit broke apart because of it.

The day her and Claire were paired for individual training she made her move.

Understandably Claire was a little put off when Miria told her to follow and quickly hurried to the spot Raki and Helen usually used for ‘training’.

Luck was on their side for once, because Raki and Helen had not yet gotten busy when Miria and Claire crested the last hill to the flat stone plain that was used for practice.

The lovebirds were standing in front of the tiny cave they usually used to satisfy their urges, which was conveniently next to the practice ground and tried their best to see how far they could get their tongue into the other’s throat.

Claire stood rooted to the spot, her eyes unwilling to leave the scene in front of her. Helen and Raki continued totally unaware of their audience.

Miria cleared her throat loudly.

Raki was out of Helen’s arms and standing 2 meters away from the amorous Claymore at the unexpected sound faster than he had ever been in training and Miria could not help the amusement that flowed through her at that.

When the boy caught sight of her, and more specifically Claire, his eyes reflected his horror at being caught quiet well. “Wha…What are you doing here?” He asked, still unbalanced from the unexpected situation.

“I think we should be the one asking that question, don’t you think?” Miria retorted.

Helen quickly stepped in front of Raki and glared at Miria . ”What we’re doing here is none of business. There’s nothing for you to get all pissed about!”

“This is not my business, but I believe Claire has a right to know what’s going on. Now, why don’t you tell her?”

Claire looked positively lost, like a little child that was told that Santa Claus was a lie. ”What do you need to tell me?” She asked in a small voice, no trace of the mighty warrior inside her visible.

Both Raki and Helen wilted at her question and tried to stammer out the beginnings of a few half assed lies to keep Claire in the dark

Miria sympathized with all of them. While she had never been in love with someone, as far as she could tell, it was easy to see that these three cared for each other a great deal.

Revealing the relationship between Helen and Raki would hurt Claire and neither of them wanted that, but Miria felt responsible for everyone under her command and the current situation had to be resolved before someone did something very stupid.

Steeling her determination to see this through, Miria did what she had to do. “I see you don’t know where to begin, so I’ll start for you….Claire, these two have been screwing like rabbits every chance they got since Helen’s birthday.”

With no objection forthcoming, Claire had to accept the truth of her blunt words. Miria felt Claire’s body tremble under the hand she had laid on her shoulder.

“Why?” The silver eyed woman simply asked; her sorrow and betrayal solely directed at Raki.

In the privacy of her own mind, Miria admitted to herself that Raki’s following action was truly worthy of respect. Instead of justifying his actions, he looked Claire straight in the eye and told her everything about the cold night in Pieta he had shared with Helen and the weeks that followed up to the present. He told her how he basked in Helen’s warmth and in her closeness and in the love the Claymore gave him so willingly.

Helen was positively glowing at his words.

Claire looked devastated.”…but our kiss…the promise we made when we were running from Ophelia, does that mean nothing?”

“Claire…I love you with every fibre of my being…I wanted to be with you ever since you first kissed me and I still do; But we’ve been here over three years and you never gave any indication of wanting more than what we have.” Raki paused for a moment, obviously gathering his thoughts. “I tried to wait for you, but Helen is so open with her affection…I simply can’t control myself, I’m sorry.”

“If you really love me…then why…with her? Do you love her more than me?!” Claire queried further. Helpless anger and frustration tainted her voice.

Raki studied the ground intently. ”I…like Helen a lot…but not as much as you.”

Helen grimaced when Raki admitted that, but Miria suspected the other Claymore had known that all along. She was proven true when Helen overrode Claire’s next logical question. “Simple, I seduced him. He’s been around us for nearly 3 years now without an outlet for his urges. I gave him that outlet, regardless of his feelings for me.”

While honest, Helen’s admission instantly made her a prime target for the frustration and anger Claire was feeling and before Miria had a chance to interfere Claire’s sword clashed against Helen’s guard. ”You!!! I thought we were friends!! I _trusted_ you, and you do something like _this_?!” Claire ranted as she tried to overpower Helen.

“We _are_ friends! It’s not my fault you are too thick headed to take what’s right in front of you!” Helen retorted and the two of them were soon exchanging blows.

Raki told them to stop, but they did not listen and the boy was forced to watch as the two most important women in his life did their best to kill each other. Miria likewise watched the fight, but with a more critical eye. Unlike Raki, she could tell that both, Helen and Claire, needed this to clear the air between them and to blow of some steam, but neither fought to kill the other.

Nonetheless, she decided to interfere when Raki got ready to jump between them.

‘If the object of the current dispute is sliced to pieces it will not exactly help’ Miria concluded, even though she was sorely tempted to let it happen, if only because all this drama gave her a headache.

Judging the moment right, Miria slashed right in between her battling comrades, forcing both of them to jump back. “That is quite enough, ladies. I will not pretend to understand the full range of your feelings, but fighting will not solve the problem.”

“And what do you want us to do instead?” Claire demanded, intent on solving the dilemma by force, it seemed.

“I want you to think about your situation. We have survived the awakened hunt together, we have survived Pieta together and we promised to take revenge _together_. The friendship that blossomed out of these trials is a precious thing. It is more than most of our kind ever experience and we should be thankful for it. Do you really intend to throw all that away because of a useless emotion like jealously? Have you gotten so greedy for happiness that you would not even share it with those closest to you?” Claire, Helen and Raki looked positively stunned by her moving speech and Miria was surprised to feel the stinging in her eyes that indicated that she was about to cry. Those words had come from her heart and the thought of her comrades, no, her friends, not getting along shook her more than she had thought possible.

“Miria?” Helen asked hesitantly and Miria quickly turned away to hide her face.

“As your commander…and as your friend, I ask you to work this out between the three of you before you return to camp today.” Miria said, forcing her voice to stay level. ”I will leave you to your privacy now.”

After that Miria had walked away without turning back. She was proud of the fact that nothing of her unexpected emotional outburst had been visible when she had gotten back to camp.

The rest of that day she was unable to concentrate on anything and contented herself with hunting for a decent dinner.

Claire, Helen and Raki returned to camp well after nightfall, together and smiling.

The sight warmed Miria’s heart and when the three of them talked animatedly with each other over dinner without any of the awkwardness and animosity that had been present the days before Miria felt a weight lift off her shoulders. The crisis was averted and their little ‘family’ stayed the way it was.

From that day on, Raki did a lot of private training with Claire as well and more often than not, Helen was invited along.

‘Forcing these three to solve their problems like that may have been the worst mistake of my life’ Miria conceded after her little trip down memory lane.

Surprisingly Helen and Claire were still silent.

“Thank god, it’s finally over.” Cynthia whispered gratefully.

“I suppose it is worth a try, but I will be the first.” Claire stated behind them in a barely heard voice to prove Cynthia wrong.

“Yeah yeah, I know…the wife gets her husband first. Sloppy seconds are good enough for the ***-friend, eh?”

Miria hung her head along with the others, Deneve excluded, when the discussion behind them once again started up with Helen’s remark.

‘Definitely my worst mistake’ Miria thought morosely.

“Wimps” Deneve, the only one who seemed totally unaffected, said quietly and Miria’s head sunk even further.

Definitely the worst…

Sleeping while being slung over someone’s shoulder while that someone was flat out sprinting, Raki noted on waking, was not a very pleasant experience.

The ground was racing by so fast that all he could make out was a blur. Together with the up and down movement and the headache that was still raging in his head it served to make him very sick very fast.

“Hey!” He grunted out. “Put me down, okay?”

“We must make haste. You can not move fast enough” A familiar voice retorted. They had not slowed down at all.

“Listen.” He started to say, but had to stop a moment when his stomach heaved. “If you don’t put me down now, I’ll have no other choice but to introduce your cape to the contents of my stomach.”

That worked, maybe a little to well.

In the blink of an eye they went from full speed to standing still and Raki felt his stomach lurch from the forces involved in stopping so fast.

Whoever carried him reacted fast, though, and dropped him to the ground none too gently.

Not that Raki cared, what with being busy decorating the forest floor and all.

“What a grizzly sight” His companion noted with a disgusted undertone after Raki’s stomach had stopped rebelling.

“What did you expect when running around with me like that?!” Raki fired back, while getting some distance from his recent ‘accident’.

“My apologies; I thought you would be sturdier.”

Raki, after standing up, finally got this first glance at his companion and gaped. “Galatea?” he asked dumbly.

The silver eyed woman before him raised an eyebrow. “Was that supposed to be a question?”

The timbre of her voice, her facial structure and the clothes she wore; everything pointed to the obvious: she was indeed Galatea.

While several things about her presence in the city did not add up, Raki decided to concentrate on one thing at a time, while the elephants were still dancing tango in his head.

“I guess I owe you my thanks for saving my life from that second youma?”

“Your thanks are appreciated, but unnecessary. It was weak.” Galatea said graciously.

Raki chuckled. “Yeah, a warrior would say that, I suppose. Still, I’m really grateful you came to safe me.”

Galatea decided not to answer that, instead she pondered the irony of saving the one she had originally come to slay.

Raki, who had not really expected an answer anyway, stood up on rubbery legs and took a few experimental steps. “I think I’m good to walk again. Say, why were you running like that anyway? Do they dislike your kind that much in that town? Is that why you did not carry your sword and disguised your eyes?”

Galatea gave him a flat stare. “You talk a lot.”

“I told you, I’m used to filling the silence. So, how about answering me? From our time in the city I know you can hold a decent conversation.” Raki reminded her with amusement.

“Very well,” Galatea started with a long suffering sigh. “I will satisfy your curiosity, if for no other reason than to shut you up.”

“I am sure you have heard of the war in the north 7 years ago. The organisation had sent 24 warriors to their deaths that day, only to abuse two others to defeat the awakened that could not be stopped in Pieta. I have always felt that their methods were questionable, but the day I saw Number 1 and Number 2 reduced to nothing but killing machines without will, I had enough. Ever since then, I have been hiding and living by myself. The youma was simply unlucky to come to the town I was hiding in. They will know that I was there though, so I will have to search for a new hideout.”

“So that’s why you’re in such a hurry to leave. Sorry to hear that.” Raki said at length.

After that they walked in silence for a few minutes, until Galaea finally broke. “How did you do it?”

“How did I do what?” Raki asked, playing the ignorant fool.

“How did you sense the youma? How did you slay one of them…and where did you acquire your Claymore?” Galatea specified, keeping her face totally cool.

“I guess I will satisfy your curiosity, if for no other reason than to shut you up.” Raki responded, a mocking grin stretching over his face.

“Touché.” said his silver eyed companion after getting her words thrown back in her face. A smile twitched along her lips for a moment. “You’re a regular joker.”

“If that’s what it takes to see you warriors smile, I don’t mind one bit.” Raki said unabashedly. “Anyway, the short version goes like this: I was in Pieta when the big fight went down. Ever since then I’ve been with the survivors, who where also in hiding. They trained me all the time, and when my old sword broke, they decided I needed something sturdier. That’s how I got my hands on this.” At that point he patted the hilt of his Claymore with affection.

“As for me being able to sense youma and slay one of them: I don’t have the slightest clue. I know a human can’t sense yoki, and he sure as hell can’t win a fight with a youma, but I did both, so maybe there are exceptions.”

“So there are survivors from that day.” Galatea ventured, when he did not continue. “I am glad that a few of my comrades made it out alive. Why have you parted ways with them now, though?”

The Claymore was slightly surprised, when Raki gnashed his teeth in the wake of her question, real anger and worry clearly visible on his features. “They decided that it was time to take revenge on Isley, the awakened who was supposedly behind that attack from seven years ago. They did not want me around, because I would only hinder their movements. We’re supposed to meet up in 2 months.”

Galatea saw the wisdom in that, but wisely kept that to herself, because it was clearly a touchy subject for the young man beside her. Instead she asked him, what he was doing in the meantime.

“I’m investigating.” Raki said, clearly welcoming the change of topic. “Miria once told me, that she did not know where youma come from, and the others did not know either, so I decided to use my time to find out more about them. If we knew where and how they are reproducing we could find other means to suppress them.”

Galatea could not help but feel strangely touched. Raki was a human, yet he insisted on taking on the problems only her kind was supposed to bother with. It made her intensely curious about his motivation. She was not in the habit of prying into other people’s personal business, though, and forced her curiosity aside.

Instead she tried to remember back to her time in the organisation.

As one of the highest ranking warriors of her time and her title as ‘the eye’ she had been privy to a great many things most warriors did not even hear in rumours. She had spent a great deal of time reading up on the history of the organisation, but she had never come across any details about youma breeding.

It was a part of knowledge that was strangely missing from the extensive library the organisation possessed, just like the beginnings of the organisation were very unclear.

Amidst all that useless information a little, seemingly inconsequential memory suddenly caught her inner eye and she hummed quietly.

“You have a noble goal. Unfortunately, I do not know anymore than your friends. In all the lore I have read, there has never been any mention about their breeding habits. I only remember an old text dating back nearly 400 years. It mentioned a sudden outbreak of youma 4 days north of Suku, which went hand in hand with reduced youma activity in the rest of the land.”

Raki frowned at that. “I appreciate your help, but that’s a very weak clue. Maybe I should pay a visit to the organisation and ask them? They have their headquarters there, right?”

“NO!” Galatea surprised herself with her outburst. “You will not find a text there that I have not already read and the members of the inner circle will not answer you anyway. Most likely they will find a way to make you vanish.”

“Why would they do that? I mean, they even have a rule that forbids a warrior from killing humans, right?” Raki asked.

“I suppose from an outsiders perspective the organisation looks like a benign group, but think about it for a moment: They charge horrendous prices for exterminating youma, warriors that want to leave service are hunted down and killed. Why do you think that is? They could always make new ones, after all.”

Raki pondered that for a moment and shrugged. “I have no clue where you are going with this.”

Galatea smirked at his naivety. “It is simple. A free warrior would mean a rival to their business. If a free warrior suddenly decided to slay youma for only a meal and a place to sleep, they would be out of business very fast. In the end, the organisation is only looking to make the most profit, just like everyone else. You, walking around with a Claymore and having slain a youma, would also be nothing but a rival to them.”

“That makes sense. Why didn’t I think of that myself?” Raki wondered at his own short-sightedness.

Impossibly, the smirk on Galatea’s face got even bigger. “You can’t expect to have enough brawns to fight a youma _and_ brains.”

Even while she said it, Galatea wondered what was wrong with her. While her 7 years living with humans had made her a lot more expressive, joking around like that was not in her nature.

Even more surprising was Raki’s reaction.

“True enough. Guess I’m lucky I met someone whose beautiful, brawny _and_ brainy all at once.” He said and chuckled good naturedly.

His perfectly delivered compliment left Galatea speechless, and they walked a few minutes in silence. Raki was thinking about what she had told him, and Galatea was trying to figure out whether Raki had no ego to speak of, was good at making compliments or both.

During their silence, they reached a well travelled path, and Raki stopped suddenly, casting a short glance at the sun, which was peaking forth between the grey clouds for a few moments.

“Suku is east of here, right?”

“Yes” Galatea said, slightly startled by his sudden question. “I believe it will take you one week to reach it on foot if you follow this road.”

Raki pumped his hand into the air excitedly, seemingly out of the blue. “All right. Let’s do this!” Then turning to face her, he continued. “I’m sure you want to get far away from here as fast as possible. Going our separate ways here may be the best.”

“True. I had not planned moving this slowly.” Galatea affirmed his assumption.

“I want to thank you once again for saving me back there. I hope we will meet again sometime. Good luck.”

In the face of Raki’s upbeat smile and bearing Galatea could only play along. “Till we meet again. Good luck in your investigation”

That ended the short period they had known each other. No overdramatic goodbye, no tears and no regrets. Despite that Galatea, who was still reeling from her meeting with the extraordinary human, felt a small pang of regret at their parting.

It was the first time in memory someone had treated her as a human being, while knowing she was a half-breed.

End Chapter 5

Author’s notes:

See? I promised Claire and company will get more screentime and here they are.

By now you have probably guessed that I will slowly explain the current relationships in the group through flashbacks. That has the big advantage that I can use scenes like Claire and Helen discussing their sex-life to throw all of you for a, hopefully funny, loop. :)

See you next chapter.