Ichigo opened his eyes and blinked. He rubbed his head and frowned. "Where am I?" Suddenly it all came racing back. Finding the rock city, meeting the people with swords, seeing the monsters come over the mountain, and… "Orihime!" He scrambled to sit up, and Chad came over. "Ichigo. Are you all right?" "Yes, where's Orihime?" Chad looked down. "She's not here." Ichigo stared at him. "Then what are we doing? We need to go find her!" He stood up, and Uryu grabbed his arm. "Ichigo! We're not alone." Ichigo looked around and his jaw dropped. On the other side of the clearing were four girls who looked almost exactly like the two that had attacked them. "We ran into them when we were trying to escape the mountain. They led us away from the monsters, then started talking once we got here." Hiyori says as she walks over. "They can't understand us, and we don't understand them." Lisa adds, leaning against a tree. "They seem to know we're missing someone though."
Suddenly, the youngest-looking figure walks towards them. She pulls her sword out, and they stiffen, but she starts drawing something on the ground. As the lines come together, Ichigo leans forward. "That's Orihime!" The girl nods and gestures towards them, then towards her companions. "It looks like they're trying to find her too." Uryu says. "But why?" Chad asks. Ichigo shakes his head and looks back toward the mountain. "It doesn't matter. As long as they want to help find Orihime, I don't care what their reason is." The girl sheathed her sword and said something to her companions, and they came over. The woman with short hair motioned with her hand, and the other women started heading back to the mountain with her. Ichigo and the others looked at each other, then followed.
Yuma rubbed her cheek. "I felt like an idiot trying to talk to them." Helen grinned. "You looked you would rather be fighting Yoma then drawing a picture in the dirt." Clare spoke up. "Why is it so important that we find this girl they're looking for?" "Her name is Orihime." Cynthia says. "Yuma and I were able to talk to her, so if we want to find out who they are then we need to find her." Deneve frowns. "How were you able to talk to her, but not the others?" "We think her power may be similar to our yoki manipulation. She was able to create barriers of some sort, and she had something that she was able to summon."
Orihime looked at the little girl. Something had just crossed her mind. "Hey, what's your name?" The girl looked at her. "It's Hana. It means flower." Orihime nodded. "Well, Hana, my name is Orihime, and it means Princess." Orihime grinned. "You have a very pretty name." The girl grins. "So do you." Orihime looks up at her. "But I was wondering, how can you understand me? All the others can't speak my language, and I can't understand them, but you can talk to me and I understand you." The girl rubbed the side of her head and frowned. "I don't know. I know I don't belong here, but it was so long ago I can't remember." "What do you mean?" Orihime said. "Once you become like them," the girl pointed at the two Claymore. "You don't age. As long as you aren't killed in battle, you live on forever, to protect the humans."
Orihime looked at the two Claymore. "You don't age at all?…" Orihime shook herself and stood up. "Well, they're both healed so I don't have any reason to keep the shield up any longer. Would you be able to explain to them that I'm not dangerous?" "Ok, but they probably won't listen to me." Hana walked up to the shield and started talking to the Claymore. One just glared at her and didn't say anything, but the other slowly started nodding and said something back. Hana looked at Orihime and grinned. "She said that since you healed them, they won't attack you. But they strongly advise coming with them so they can take you to people who would know what to do with you." The Claymore pointed at herself, then at her companion. "She'd also like to say her name is Audrey and her rank is number 3, and that her companion is Rachel, who is number 5."
"What do the numbers mean?" Orihime said. Hana started laughing so hard she almost fell off the rock she was standing on and had to grab the rock behind her to stay up. "Oh, you're serious. Well, the numbers rank how powerful a Claymore normally is. Single digits are amazingly powerful, and the top five even more so." Hana looks out of the corner of her eye at Orihime. "So you should be super glad that you didn't meet that Awakened Being." Orihime frowns. "Why not?" "Because," Hana said, sliding down the rock. "That awakened being was able to take out two single digits while only using a tiny amount of her strength." Orihime touched a hairpin and the shield around the Claymores winked out of existence. "Wow. So she's that strong?" Hana nodded. "And she hasn't stopped. She seems to be looking for something." The first Claymore came up and put her hand on Orihime's shoulder. Audrey, Orihime remembered. Orihime looked at her and Audrey gave her a tiny smile then started moving down the mountain. Rachel immediately followed, and Orihime looked at Hana. "Should we?" Hana shrugged. "If you don't then other Claymore will just find you. Audrey's one of the better Claymore to deal with, she's more level-headed than most. There are a couple who may just kill you on sight if they see you using your power." Orihime nodded slightly with her eyes wide. "So we should go with them?" "I'm following you, because I don't know why but you and your friends remind me of something I can't remember. But if I'm with you, you're going to get more odd looks and suspicion from the Claymore." Orihime nodded. "We'll go with them." She turned and started following the Claymore, and Hana walked after her.
Rachel looked at Audrey as she walked next to her. "What do you think she is?" Audrey shrugged. "I don't know. She has impressive power, so we should have Miria and the others deal with her." Rachel frowned. "What do you think they'll do?" The skepticism is obvious in her voice. Audrey extended her arm in front of Rachel and Rachel stopped. "Rachel," Audrey said patiently. "Like it or not, the Six are our new leaders. They survived Pieta, and they survived Priscilla and everything the Organization threw at them." "So did we!" Rachel says angrily. Audrey shakes her head. "No. They saved us in the beginning, from Riful. And every single Claymore besides number 10 wasn't enough to stop Miria. Do you remember that? We were among the first to go down from her, but she didn't kill a single one of us." Audrey pulls her arm away and starts walking down the mountain again. "You know all of that, so stop fighting it. There's no way you or any of us could defeat any of them. They are our new leaders, and they know what's best." Rachel grinds her teeth and walks after her. "I know that, but it doesn't mean I have to like it." Audrey smiles. "I know."