Fandom: Claymore
Title: The Human Core
Main Characters/Pairings: Clare, Raki, mentions of Rubel, Elena and Theresa.
Summary: The shield that protects you from decay might seem the most fragile of things.
Rating: PG-13 (because of mentions of violence)
Status: Complete, as it is just a drabble. Does anyone wish for a sequel? If so, please, let me know.
Genre: Action/Romance/Dramatics
Warning: Serious anxiety, both as state and trait. English is not my native tongue.
Word count: 597
Disclaimer: My name is not Yagi Norihiro, therefore "Claymore" cannot be mine.
Spoilers: If you haven't watched the fourth episode of the anime and read up to thirty-ninth chapter of the manga – more than vast.
The Human Core
Sometimes she felt like a mechanical doll: she did as they've programmed her to, applied the methods the training had written into her memory, followed the suppressed beastly instinct living within her.
The organisation built her, shaped her like an animal, gave her a different destiny and had Rubel to watch her from afar. She came to them on her free will – to keep the part of the one who, for a brief moment, had become her mother, alive. She cherished that part like a rich man cherishes his gold and jewels.
The organisation had also given her a friend. I was Elena who told her it is all right to seek comfort in each other, to sleep together, curled up on the floor of their cell and to dream of better times. None of these dreams, naturally, were to ever come true.
Because, eventually, they drifted apart. Up until the day Rubel came to her with a black card, she kept thinking: 'I'll find out how she's doing... tomorrow'. Shocked at first at the mere sight of the black paper with a small, blood-red symbol printed on it, she wept with a bitter thought that at least their friendship meant enough for the other one to beg Clare for death before Elena disappeared completely within the madness of the monster.
Each time she jumps and swings her enormous sword, she believes in what she had been told. Clare relies on the words of her teachers and she believes in the things ordinary people whisper behind her back, as she passes by. She believes that she is the monster herself, although she acknowledges the fact that she'd once been a pure human being, flesh and blood.
And that remaining shred of human heart tells her to protect Raki, to protect the world for consequences of an overuse of yoma's powers while fighting the voracious eater in the Rabona cathedral. Feeling the beasts claws tightening on her throat, she desperately begs the town's knight to kill her.
And then suddenly she feels two small but strong arms wrap around her shoulders and she hears Raki's voice speak:
"I was so happy to be allowed to travel with you, to walk by your side... When everyone in my village turned their backs on me and threw me out, you lent me a hand, Clare. And in my loneliness I took it"
"Get away from me, Raki... I can't hold the monster inside me much longer..." she shrieks, pushing the monster's consciousness with all strength she has left.
"No, I won't. I won't abandon you in the worst of times" Raki shouts, tears running down his lank cheeks. "Don't try to push me away, Clare. You said you weren't gentle, but you think of everyone but yourself. You are the most unselfish person I've ever met, the most kind-hearted human being I know. If you're dying, I'll follow you! May it be either Heaven, Hell or Emptiness, but I'm going with you!!!"
The light surrounds her and she tilts her head upwards. Is this how death looks like?, Clare wonders, wrapped in the silvery rays. The stream of power does not leave her, but settles comfortably within her and suddenly she feels all right again.
She's capable of giving her love to someone. She's worth someone else's love.
Beasts do not have feelings. They only follow their lust for blood and hunger for meat. They cannot become attached to anyone, they are not capable of being loyal and faithful.
This is her most precious core. The core of her humanity.