Kapitel 379: Ch379. Then, what are you?
Rei looked at the twenty-four Claymores in front of him, the prevalent majority of them exhausted, some injured by what would be definitely crippling injury for life among ninjas but none of them dead.
It was honestly curious.
These Claymores, even the weak ones, could regenerate lost limbs whereas in the Elemental Nations, despite the advances in medical ninjutsu, this was still considered impossible by most. Yet, these backward warriors who barely had any proper technique could do it.
"Well, would you look at that? You all survived! Isn't that just wonderful?" Rei cheerily clapped his hands, eliciting helpless and tired looks of cowed anger from some of the women while others were either in too much pain to react or too exhausted they didn't have the energy to muster a reaction.
"What are you going to do with us?" Miria hollowly asked, not in the mood for games so she got straight to the point.
She was not injured but deciding the fate of herself and her comrades in the face of this monster was mentally and emotionally exhausting. When she saw how he chopped the Yomas against whom they struggled to survive to pieces without even leaving his place... it just made her that more assured there will be no backing off from this deal.
Rei lifted his eyebrow at her and looked over at the group of exhausted women who watched him with worry and almost scared expectations again.
"As I said, you are now mine. I will take you to my village and-" Rei stopped when he noticed the eyes of the girls abruptly widened in fright and their jaws dropped. "What?" He frowned.
"There is an entire village of..." Miria trailed off, gulping nervously as the horror settled in.
The situation was worse than she thought! A village full of Yomas!? And he expected them to come there with him!?
Miria had no idea how to react to that.
Rei got an inkling suspicion there was some misunderstanding going on from the looks he was receiving but he couldn't seem to figure it out. Instead, he just curtly nodded, "Yes. My village."
Miria was too shocked to speak and so, Flora decided to ask the next question, "And what are we supposed to do in this village of yours?"
Rei looked at the small woman with wavy blond hair and tried to reassuringly smile, "It won't be all that different from what you do now. Many in my village are mercenaries-"
'A village full of mercenary Yomas!?' Miria almost choked at that, having to take a few deep breaths to calm herself.
But she wasn't discarding this chance in her mind. The Organization wanted them dead and this might very well be their only way to survive. It stung her pride and went against everything she was raised to believe by the Organization but joining this blond man might not be such a bad idea at the moment.
"-and you will be provided training and resources to improve your strength before joining the ranks of the village as its warriors. The work is similar but of course, we don't have ridiculous rules like not harming humans. I'd like to believe what I offer you is better than your current situation if only because I actually plan to make you strong enough to survive your future tasks." Rei shrugged casually, reminding them they were still on a clear suicide mission.
Which worked quite well if the mutinous and dissatisfied looks of the Claymores were any indications.
When the initial wave of disgruntlement at their predicament faded, the only emotion left in the Claymores was slight depression and unease. This was, surprisingly enough, broken by Helen.
"Sign me up. If you plan to train us so we can survive then I will fight for you. Not like there is a better option anyway." Helen light-heartedly spoke in a boisterous way, giving a clear direction for the Claymores.
Now most of them stopped being so 'lost' and started focusing on the chance to become stronger so they could protect themselves. This mission of theirs no doubt showed all of them how easy it would have been for them to die.
"I agree." Flora said, more towards other Claymores than Rei, "Even if he is a Yoma-"
'A what now?' Rei lifted his eyebrow at her in speechless disbelief, the gears in his head instantly starting to turn in overdrive.
"- he still saved us. Do you want to end up in a similar situation later on? In similar despair?" Flora finished and while her voice was soft, the effect it had on the Claymores was staggering as soft muttering was heard from the group, and the mistrust and small hostility some individuals were previously showing Rei lessened by a great deal.
Rei had to admit the woman was a natural leader.
Unlike Miria who was more of a fighter than a leader, Flora was capable of turning the opinion of the crowd with her words and natural charisma. A charisma that was not due to her status as a single-digit Claymore.
And the girl was apparently self-taught in this skill too. She didn't seem to have much idea what she was doing and about the small mistakes she was making. For Rei, it felt more as if she was put into leadership positions in the past and somewhere along the line realized what worked and what did not and now was using it to her benefit.
Miria was much the same but she lacked Flora's natural grace and was much more rigid.
Rei remembered it was also Flora who first engaged the scout Yoma during the very first fights, not letting it have a free hand while the other Claymores fought the other two Yomas.
That was a good call. The Yoma obviously wanted to sneakily take down Claymores from the behind and its ability to control the Yoki of others would prove disastrous for the Claymores if it wasn't engaged in a fight.
Flora more than likely saved all of them by breaking the ranks and interrupting the Yoma.
While Miria was undoubtedly stronger, Rei was more interested in Flora. Miria was at best jonin level, her afterimages caused by her movement technique rather than her sheer speed. There were many jonins in his village that could be more than her match even without using ninjutsu and genjutsu.
Her strength in this group was irrelevant. It didn't matter that she was one of the top dogs here. In his village, she was average at best.
But people like Flora with a natural aptitude for leadership and a good head on her shoulders... now these would be always in demand. Strength could be trained but natural charisma was hard to cultivate.
While the women were having their hushed talks, Rei was thinking about their apparent false perception of him. They thought he was Yoma? He couldn't understand how they got to that conclusion but the sooner he broke them out of it, the better.
"Before this discussion can go on, I think we have something to clear up." He said and silence suddenly descended on the town square. "I am not a Yoma." He bluntly spoke, causing the Claymores to look at him in incomprehension.
Deneve was the first to recollect her cool and carefully asked, "You are... not?"
From her tone it was obvious she didn't believe him, a sentiment shared by most of the Claymores, but Rei just plainly shook his head.
"No."
It didn't matter to him if they believed him or not but he had to say it. They would eventually realize the truth even if they currently didn't believe him so trying to prove himself was just wasted effort.
"But... men can not be so strong!" A burly girl full of muscles with two swords on her back, Undine, exclaimed and Rei involuntarily snorted.
He looked at Undine, causing her to defiantly stare at him with threatening body language... but her eyes were completely full of fright. It was hilarious, seeing that girl play tough. Especially when Rei knew all these muscles were just a Yoki manipulation technique. He could quite easily sense her real body shape and she was actually even tinier than Flora who was the most petite Claymore in the group!
"Girl," Rei drawled with amusement written in his expression, "I think you are misunderstanding something here. Your worldview doesn't matter. You are just a weak experiment living on a backwater island. You don't have any idea what is possible in this world."
And while his words were harsh, they were spoken jovially. It took a while for the muscled Claymore to understand Rei insulted her.
But Flora showed her leadership qualities again and put a hand on Undine's... forearm, since she would have to reach up if she wanted to put it on her shoulder, and broke Undine's rising indignation.
It was so easy to forget the man in front of them was dangerous enough to wipe them all out instantly if provoked. His behavior was just so disarming that Flora had a hard time keeping her vigilance around him.
"Then, what are you if not Yoma?" She asked.
Rei smirked, happy the woman was not arrogant enough to assume there are only Yomas and Claymores in the world.
"Me?" Rei nonchalantly pointed at himself, "I am a ninja."
Needless to say, that told the Claymores exactly nothing.
Kapitel 380: Ch380. Rigaldo
Rei loved the confusion on the Claymores' faces. They clearly never heard of ninjas and didn't fully believe his claim of not being a Yoma but they also had doubts about their worldview.
If Rei was indeed telling the truth, then that would mean there were other people capable of slaying Yomas and... That rubbed the Claymores the wrong way.
They were always told they had to hunt Yomas because there was nobody else capable of doing so. They were made to dedicate their whole life, their whole existence, to serving the Organization and enacting their orders because only they could slay Yomas.
They took solace in the fact they were protecting humanity.
To be told they were not really needed? That there was somebody else who could do the job instead of them?
It was both relieving and vexing for the female warriors.
While he was enjoying the rare expressions on the Claymores' faces, Rei suddenly blinked and turned his head towards the north before clicking his tongue before walking forward.
The Claymores had no idea how to react as he started walking through their group. There was still wariness in their eyes but resignation was more prevalent. Rei didn't care about them right now, though.
He had a tougher nut to crack.
Arriving behind, or in front, depending on the perspective, of the group of Claymores, Rei shifted his body weight in preparation for a quick reaction.
"Will you show yourself or coward is your default setting?" Rei taunted.
Such a weak taunt would definitely not work on most chunins but Rei decided there was no need for anything overly complicated. These Yomas were apex predators for far too long. Having somebody they consider beneath them insult them would either rile them up or... it won't and tell Rei that his opponent was worthwhile and he should take him a bit more seriously.
It was a win-win situation for Rei anyway.
When a slow clapping sound resounded through the town square as a young man with dark hair that fell over his pale silver eyes appeared calmly walking from the blizzard that limited the visibility, Rei couldn't muster any kind of surprise.
By now, he fully understood that Yomas were prideful and arrogant beings.
Why should their top dogs be any different?
"Really? You show yourself just because I called you a coward?" Rei gave the condescending young man a deadpan look, stopping him dead in his tracks.
The young man narrowed his silver eyes at him before his gaze slowly slid towards the Claymores, disregarding Rei altogether.
Rei frowned. Not because of the disregard but because of the utter inability to read the situation. Yes, Rei had his chakra bound tighter than Anko ties her poor victims. In the young man's eyes, Rei is probably no more than a civilian.
There was a reason why he did not show his full power to annihilate the Yoma 'army'. He didn't want to scare this guy away. But still, one look at the battlefield and he should see something was amiss.
The guy just seemed to not care, judging his opponents' prowess only by their energy levels.
"This is a miracle. All of my Awakened Beings are dead but none of you died. You are fine warriors. If you had more time to grow, you might have posed a challenge. Unfortunately, I can't allow that to happen." The young man spoke before a massive discharge of Yoki erupted from him.
A vortex of crimson energy emerged around the young man, ferociously swirling and lighting the surroundings with a blood-red hue as his body started to shift.
It slightly reminded Rei of werewolf shapeshifting and for the first time, he actually appreciated the shape of a Yoma. From what he saw up till now, Yomas were ugly motherfuckers.
This dude however had it a bit better aesthetically.
When he was completely shifted, he resembled a silver-eyed, humanoid lion creature with a wolfs' elongated snout, bulging muscles, proper six-pack, and was around three meters in height.
Frankly, if Rei saw such a monster in his previous life, he would probably shit himself and reincarnate from the sheer fright.
Unfortunately for the lion wolfie, Rei saw much more dangerous 'monsters' than him.
When Miria saw the transformation, she instantly shook in fright, "Impossible!" She exclaimed in a quiet voice, trying to keep her fear out of it for the benefit of her comrades. "Tha-That's Rigaldo! The Silver-Eyed Lion King, Rigaldo!"
Her exclamation was supposed to serve as a warning to get ready for anything. Rigaldo was legendary and there was no Claymore that didn't know about him. Even those who still have no clue what exactly Awakened Beings are, knew that there was an extremely powerful Yoma called Rigaldo with strength just below the three Abyssal Ones.
Alas, Miria's lack of leadership qualities showed once again as the whole group of Claymores was now extremely scared for their lives now that they knew who they were facing.
Rei couldn't blame Miria for her oversight. She meant well and there was a need to remind the battle-capable Claymores that their enemy is much stronger than the previous ones.
He glanced at them with a small disappointment in his gaze. They already lost half of the fight if they refused to properly stand up to their enemy.
'And they were doing so well against the Awakened Beings...' He wryly smiled and gently shook his head.
Oh, they had the will to fight and survive but it was considerably shaken after knowing the identity of their enemy.
'I wonder what would they feel if they knew both Isley and Priscilla, two beings on the level of Abyssal Ones, are currently heading this way.' Rei snorted. Now that would probably completely finish off any sort of self-confidence the Claymores had left.
"Calm down!" Flora suddenly firmly spoke, "Focus on surviving, not on your fear! You will die that way."
Her words were simple and plain but they certainly hit home.
Rei's lips twitched upwards when he saw the Claymores settle down and the battle-able ones prepared for a fight to the bitter end. They rallied behind Miria, depending on her strength but Flora's words gave them the necessary final push to gain resolve.
Rei thought it was... adorable. He wondered when was the last time he faced a life and death battle.
Obviously, it was just an idle curiosity of his. The whole goal for him in this life was being smart enough to avoid such a thing. If one had to fight, he should first get strong enough to win the battle easily.
Depending on some on-spot mid-fight boosts and strength level breakthrough... now that was totally retarded.
In the real world, if one is not strong enough, he should not engage. Period.
Running headfirst into an avoidable fight one was not certain to win was stupid beyond words. Granted, there were some unavoidable fights, and giving your all even if it looked lost from the start was exactly the thing that could pave the path to victory, but the point still stood.
Now that the Claymores were ready for a fight Rei was not willing to let them participate in, he refocused on the lion wolfie.
Rei had manners. He left Rigaldo to finish his transformation without chucking a mini bijuudama at the stupidly stationary target. He wanted to see what the wolfie would do after transforming.
Rigaldo did not further disappoint Rei.
There was no overly long, boring monologue or boasting. He just disappeared the second he was transformed and...
A wind blew into Flora's face, causing her to squint her eyes, and her brain trying to process what her eyes were seeing. It took a second but her brain finally managed to register what was happening in front of her and her eyes widened in terror as she took a step back. She was however so shaken up she slid on the snow and fell on her posterior.
'I almost died!' Her mind screamed at her but her body couldn't stop shaking as he realized Rigaldo was right in front of her in the middle of the other Claymores who were only now realizing what was happening, 'And I didn't even see how.'
Rigaldo's claw on his pointing finger was just a small distance from the center of her forehead, his massive hand held back by the deceptively small... ninja.
The mysterious man saved her life!
Flora gulped, her throat uncomfortably dry all of sudden.
She could imagine what her fate would have been if the ninja did not stop Rigaldo. He would have split her head like a knife does an apple!
Flora shuddered at the thought and how close she was to death. She was straight out hyperventilating and felt the same fear as a rookie who was on her first Yoma hunt.
"Rigaldo wordlessly looked at the small hand preventing him from killing his first prey before his silver eyes slowly relocated towards the owner of said hand and found the... civilian.
If it surprised him, he didn't show it. Instead, he asked, "Who are you, weakling?"
Rei almost face faulted. Yes, he was still suppressing his energy levels but... wasn't him stopping his hand enough proof of...
'You know what? Fuck it.' He dryly thought and spoke, "Me? I am Rei Yotsuba, the new owner of these Claymores. Trying to harm something that is mine... now that was where you fucked up."
And with that, Rei released his chakra suppression, exactly matching Rigaldo's own energy levels and putting yet another scare through the group of Claymores who subconsciously started to put their hopes for survival in his hands and with that, seeing Rei as someone important.
Before Rigaldo could comprehend what was going on, he received a snap kick between his legs courtesy of annoyed Rei, and flew to the nearby building, demolishing it with his body while his brain was overloaded by pain from smashed eggs.
And who knows? Rei had his hopes up that maybe it would add some intelligence to that arrogance.
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