Author Note:
Well, I asked my patrons if I should or should not do a few chapters about Rei intervening in the west, and... considering it is here, you all can deduce the answer.
I apologize in advance if so parts will feel a bit bland to those who know Claymore ani but I had to account for those who do not know it so I am trying to input so explanations along the way and integrate them into the story.
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Rei crouched on a roof of a house, withstanding a heavy snowfall and thanking his previous self for being smart enough to make seals that would keep him warm and wet in this kind of shitty weather as he watched how 24 Claymores gathered in the square of Pieta, the town they were currently in.
"This is insane. This Organization is going to sacrifice half of their numbers just like that?" Rei muttered in shell-shocked surprise. "It is pretty obvious this will be a one-sided massacre."
From the information Konan gathered, there were always only 47 Claymores and from what he rembered, this mission in the North was nothing more than a discreet execution. The Claymores had no other choice than to participate and participation in this was a sure way to commit suicide for them.
Even from his spot, he could clearly feel three malevolent unrefined chakras.... or Yoki as they called it here... slowly approaching, taking their ti. They would arrive in two to three hours with that kind of tempo so the first attack could be expected in the evening.
This Yoki had an artificial feel to it. It was honestly sothing he would expect from Orochimaru but... even for him, this would have been too primitive.
These beings felt a little bit like Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers who were swallowed by Kyuubi and survived by eating its insides, transforming themselves into a pseudo-jinchuuriki with the ability to form their own variant of kyuubi chakra.
Of course, such a transformation had many defects and affected the two brothers in ways even they themselves probably did not understand. If it was safe, Orochimaru would have used this thod long ago. In fact, he did sothing similar with Juugo's DNA and it didn't turn out well for most.
But... 'That would an there must be a being that was a precursor to these man-eating Yomas. If implanting Yoma flesh is how they make Claymores and Claymore that goes above her limit becos 'Awakened' turning into a special kind of Yoma herself, then the first dose of the Yoma flesh had to co from sowhere too.' Rei reasoned.
He didn't feel good about how logical his thoughts sounded. He did rember that the continent to the west from this island where humans lived had supposedly two races living and always warring among themselves. One depended on their technology of sorts while the other on their own natural abilities? Or was he wrong?
It was too long for him to rember every detail but this stuck in his mory. Even then, it was muddled, half-forgotten knowledge and he couldn't be sure he got it right.
He had the distant impression that neither of these two races was humanoid though.
'This island full of humans should be one gigantic laboratory or sothing. If that's the case, it probably belongs to the race depending on technology and Yoma are sothing akin to the race depending on their natural abilities.' Rei continued his theory, 'So... they are trying to artificially create a tamable Yomas here? Damn, Orochimaru is bad enough alone. We don't need a whole race of him.'
And that brought a special kind of dilemma for Rei. He as the leader now had to decide if he should leave the western continent be, leaving the two races to continue their war or if he should intervene.
Both options held their own problems.
Letting them be now could backfire later as when the war between these two races finally gets its winner, who is to say the remaining race won't set its sights towards other continents?
Invading would however an facing both races. One by one or together, it didn't matter. With war on the horizon on his own continent, Rei wasn't very keen on joining another in a different continent.
Then there was also the problem of what to do with the island full of humans so close to two races that could clearly give a shit about the well-being of humans.
Heck, one of them was using human girls as guinea pigs, implanting the flesh of the other race which caused imnse agony until it mutated the girl or it didn't... and the girl died.
Honestly, the human in Rei wanted to exterminate the vermin. If only because Orochimaru was doing sothing similar, just his victims were not only little girls.
From what Rei could feel, the three incoming malevolent energy signatures were around the level of jonins energy-wise. And they did not suppress their cha-, ahem, Yoki even one bit.
Yet, not one of the 24 Claymores sensed them and the strongest of them felt just a bit weaker than the malevolent ones.
The power disparity between the Claymores was frankly ridiculous. So of them were genin-level, so chunin-level, and only three could compare to jonins but Rei had a feeling it was not so simple. Yes, those were their energy comparison to the combat forces of the Elental Nations but...
Rei could only wryly smile. Their chakra was unrefined and corrupted. He doubted they could do Jutsu with that for the sa reason why Kyuubi could not do a Jutsu. Not because his chakra was too vast. But because his chakra was not supposed to be molded into a Jutsu in the sa way as Nature Energy.
Both were more of enhancers capable of providing insane boosts rather than energies capable of forming Jutsus. They could enhance already ford Jutsu but there was a very limited range of things one could do solely with them.
Sure, a jinchuuriki using its bijuu's power was a frightening sight, and the jinchuuriki's power was sothing that far surpassed chunins even if they had almost no training but they were not exactly versatile. They were all about raw power.
Rei rembered so abilities of Claymores like enhanced healing, enhanced strength, enhanced speed... but he had no idea to what degree. 'If I am correct about my assumption about Yoki being more of an enhancer, then their abilities would make sense. Yoki would simply enhance their physical capabilities.'
Returning his attention to the gathering Claymores, Rei noticed they separated themselves into five teams with the five highest-ranking Claymores as the leaders.
That was... stupid.
If they had a similar level of prowess, sure. But like this, weaker, average, and stronger were all mixed and Rei couldn't help but think the weaker and average ones would just hinder the stronger ones in the team like this.
He predicted the fights will be sothing along the lines of weaker claymores either dying instantly or getting away from the fight, the average ones barely hanging on while the stronger ones would be really fighting. It would defeat the purpose of having teams and this way, the stronger ones would be hindered but Rei could also discern that no Claymore had any misgivings about this arrangent.
It was weird but... they were probably used to it. This was how things were done here so no matter what logic and common sense dictated, this is how they did it.
The Elental Nations had similarly stupid traditions. Like sending barely trained thirteen-year-olds to war or to do dangerous missions. Rei quickly changed such idiotic traditions in his own village and every genin going on a mission had to have enough skill to compare to a chunin from other villages but Rei also understood that so people were blind to common sense when traditions were concerned and the others simply got used to it, stopping to think about it.
"Well, nothing to do but wait now." Rei stood up and jumped into an open window of a nearby house. He would not intervene before he could gather so more information about these Yoma and Claymores and watching them fight was the best way to do so.
'I wonder how the others are faring...' He idly thought.
After all, there was a reason why he was in Pieta alone.
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