The Only Hope?
The news that the West Village's Yoma had been beaten to the punch and eliminated had astonished both Claire and the Organization. The key point was that no one knew who had done it, and a full five Yoma had been killed. As a result, the Organization had lost a large sum in commission fees for nothing. They were indignant, of course, but there was nothing they could do about it.
In the end, though, that little matter didn't cause Claire much trouble. After all, investigating what had happened was something the Organization and the handlers had to worry about. As a Claymore, she was only too happy that someone had taken care of the Yoma for her in advance. Otherwise, by the time she arrived, the death toll might have been far higher than twenty-seven.
Although someone had beaten her to the West Village's Yoma and eliminated them, Claire didn't get to relax for long. Her handler soon brought her a new assignment: hunt down a cunning Yoma that had once killed a Claymore and could then disguise itself as one?
That sort of thing wasn't especially difficult for Claire. There had been a minor problem along the way, and she'd suffered a small injury, but in the end, she'd cut the Yoma down with a single stroke.
At the same time, she took in the boy she'd met in that village half a month earlier. In an unprecedented move, she let him become her little tagalong: the boy named Laki.
His parents had been eaten by a Yoma, and the Yoma had turned out to be his own older brother. Then, on top of that, the brothers had caused the death of their only uncle and several other villagers. Naturally, the surviving villagers saw Laki