If there was one thing Teresa was happy about, it was the remaining townsfolk promising to keep her involvement in killing the bandits to themselves. They'd pin the 'blame' of the bandits' demise on Naruto; since he transformed, the other Claymores sensing him was a damn given. If nothing else, it'll take suspicions off her back for a while.

Her Handler was dead too; she along with Naruto, and Clare, had checked on the body. The man was still alive, albeit barely, and Naruto (somewhat reluctantly) had finished him off by slitting his throat. That was a loose end taken care of. So, unless someone was to blab the truth of what happened here, Teresa wasn't going to be at risk of being hunted down.

Now, the three of them were several miles out of the burning village. They had to make themselves scarce as fast as possible, lest one of the Abyss Trinity find them. Confident as Teresa was at fighting an Abyssal One by herself, it was Clare and Naruto she was afraid for. Speaking of...Teresa sent a look Naruto's way and saw he looked fine. At least on the surface, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, it's not hurting anymore," the boy answered, knowing Teresa was asking about his re-grown skin.

Teresa stared at him for a moment longer to discern if he was telling lies or not; when he wasn't, the woman gave a satisfied nod and with a genuine smile as she ruffled his hair, making the blond whine. "That's good to hear," she then turned to the brunette and asked, "And what about you, Clare? How are you feeling?"

Clare didn't answer at first. Just as Teresa was about to ask her again, the brunette looked up at her with a smile, "…I'm okay, as long as you and Naruto are around,"

"I won't be leaving you any time soon, Clare. I promise you that." Teresa said to her daughter-figure with a smile.

"I won't mind sticking around a little longer… still have to find mom after all." Naruto chimed in with a smile of his own. "And when we do find my mom… I'll ask if we can travel together."

Teresa couldn't help but grin at that. Emotionless Irene and Teresa of the Faint Smile, back together again? It'd be like the good old days! It would be a good move as well… if the Abyss Trinity was looking for Naruto, then it would make sense for her and Irene to team up—they were Numbers One and Two for a damn good reason, after all.

Teresa was taken out of her thoughts when Naruto spoke up, "So, how far are we from the closest town?"

"We're about a week's walk away. It's called Mere, if memory serves." The woman answered; the town of Kendal was a few days away from it as well, but last she heard the settlement went dark. She'd put her bera on a yoma hive being responsible for it.

"Oh, alright."

The three of them walked on in silence after that. Though, it was broken by Naruto again nearly twenty minutes later.

"Teresa?"

"Hmm?"

"Since you and mom are friends, is it okay if I were to call you 'Auntie Teresa'?"

That got a genuine laugh out of the woman…and she wasn't opposed to it. If anything, the question amused the silver-eyed warrior. She shook her head...sheesh, this boy was a friendly one. Not that Teresa minded much, and being deemed his "aunt" gave her something to mess with Irene about! She doubted that her old friend would take that information well, and Irene had always made her laugh back when she got upset as trainees.

She understood why Irene had decided to keep the boy's power hidden from the Organization. If she were honest, Teresa didn't trust them, and if simply showing up had caused such a radical shift in the power structure, it was best if no one got their hands on him.

"Naruto!" Clare yelped, "you can't call Teresa that! It'd be creepy!"

"Why?" He wondered, turning to her, brow raised.

Instead of answering, Clare turned away, her cheeks blazing. Seeing that was all the answer Teresa needed: seemed Clare was confused about the whiskered boy with them for certain reasons she was too young to understand. It took all Teresa's self-control not to gush over it all, especially seeing the clueless face of the young man with them...typical, clueless boy...in the meantime, best come to Clare's "rescue".

"Heh...I'll think on it, but need Irene knowing, ok?" In truth, Teresa just wanted to see her best friend's face when she heard her adoptive son calling her that. It'd be priceless!

He nodded, "Ok then, I hope we meet her soon...actually pretty worried about mom." he confessed.

Teresa was tempted to laugh about that. The idea that Irene would need to be worried about seemed laughable. But then...events being what they were, it was also understandable.

It turned out Kendal had indeed gone dark, and the reason was because of a Yoma Hive. As such, a team of four Claymores were sent in to clean it out, and once the Yoma were purged from the town, they were to team up in order to search for Teresa of the Faint Smile. Only the leader of this team knew of course, and it fell to her to inform the other three of it.

Two women, one with chin-length, wavy, blonde hair that was like Teresa's, and the other with short, razor-cut pale blonde hair were busy chopping, slicing and hacking Yomas to bits. 'Muscular' Sophia and 'Stormwind' Noel were their names.

Noel was very acrobatic, and she was practically cartwheeling through several dozen Yoma, and hacking and slicing them to bits with her claymore. She was so fast and agile the woman was attacking several Yomas in a split second and by the time the woman was standing upright again, the monsters behind her collapsed to the ground in gruesome chunks.

Sophia despite her slender, almost frail appearance, had tremendous physical strength. She was able to cut through solid stone with ease, and because there was no one living in Kendal it just meant the woman didn't have to worry about collateral damage. Or killing a human for that matter. So, she was using her physical strength to slice through solid stone, and the Yoma hiding behind it; and if she was to be surrounded, then she would use her strength and slice through their arms and their waists in a single stroke.

By the end of it, Sophia and Noel were surrounded by many a carcass, and the ground was bathed with blood, gore, limbs, and brain matter. But no matter how many they killed, three more seemed to show up in their place.

Neither women were worried though.

"How many did you get, Noel?" Sophia asked aloud.

"I got twenty of them; what about you?" The woman in question asked back. Her tone sounded almost challenging.

"Oh, not much. I got twenty-five." Sophia answered as if it wasn't that big of a deal. It wasn't in truth, but she and Noel were very competitive with one another.

"Twenty-five?! I call bullshit!"

Sophia smirked good-naturedly at the blonde, "Well, monkey, if you want to beat me, you'll have to do better than you are now!"

Noel returned the smirk Sophia was sending her way with a vicious one of her own, "Oh-ho-ho, it is so on!"

With that declaration Noel dashed off and many heads, arms, legs, and torsos began to fly as she used her agility and acrobatic skill to hack and slash the Yomas apart. Sophia followed suit as she did not want to miss out on the action!

Several minutes later, Sophia and Noel were surrounded by even more corpses, but at long last it seemed as if the hive was thinning out. There was no other Yoma in sight as far as they could tell. All that was around them were bodies, body parts and blood. Lots and lots of blood.

"How many do you have this time?" Sophia asked.

"Fifty-five," Noel answered, "And you?"

"Eh, I got fifty this time," The woman answered with a nonchalant shrug.

The two of them perked up when they heard a familiar voice, "There you are," both Noel and Sophia turned to Irene who was walking over to them with a look on her face that was borderline emotionless.

Two Yomas, on both sides of the street the woman was walking down, had leapt out of hiding to blindside the pointy-eared lady. Irene barely reacted as they were sliced in half from head to groin and she kept walking, as if they weren't even a blimp on her radar. Remarkably, Irene never got a speck of blood on her.

There was a very good reason why she was called 'Quicksword' Irene. She could move her arm so fast the eye can't even see it, and you would be dead before realizing it. The two Yomas she dispatched learned it the hard way.

"I see you two were having fun," Irene said as she came to a stop in front of them.

Noel shrugged uncaringly, "Well we were sent here with the intent on clearing out this hive. We might as well have a competition on who can kill the most while we're at it." then she sent a curious look Irene's way and asked, "So how many did you kill on your way to us?"

"Doesn't matter," Irene said dismissively. Then she looked around and frowned a bit, "It seems we're missing one."

Noel and Sophia exchanged looks at that.

"Really?" asked the former.

"Sending four of the Organization's strongest warriors to clear out a hive is a little overkill isn't it?" the latter added on.

"It would be. But this was just our second objective-" Irene began, but was interrupted by the sound of someone emerging from an alleyway; when Irene, Noel, and Sophia all looked in the direction the noise came from the three women saw a pale-blonde haired teenage girl with a razor-cut hairstyle in the same uniform as they were wearing.

She repeatedly blinked at them, before asking, "Oh, are you the ones I'm meant to be teaming up for this mission?"

"It seems so," Irene answered. "I don't recall your name, or your Number, do you mind telling us who you are?"

The girl blinked before smiling politely, "I'm Priscilla. As for my Number… it's two?"

"EH?!" Both Noel and Sophia were shocked to hear that; that meant Irene has been demoted to Number three and they've been demoted to Numbers four and five!

Though, Irene didn't react to her rank being downgraded. It was almost as if she had been expecting it. However, the woman did pick up the tone in the girl's voice.

"You're not sure?" Irene asked, after raising a hand to silence the other two women.

Priscilla shrugged. "In all honesty, I think it's just a temporary position. I'd rather much be given a rank that's more align to my own skills. I am more than aware of being inexperienced, and as such, once this mission is finished, I am going to request for a demotion to a lower number. I'd very much not usurp your place, Miss Irene."

Well, Irene could respect that. The girl knew she was inexperienced and wanted to work for the Number given to her.

"Alright." Irene began, drawing everyone's attention back on to her, "Now that the four of us are together, it's time for me to relay what our true mission is…"

/

With the greenhorn of the group now with them and caught up with their current objective, Sophia and Noel looked to Irene with the former crossing her arms.

"So we're looking for Teresa, then?" Sophia asked to make sure she didn't miss anything; she was looking to Irene with a quirked brow, though she was sweating inwardly at the thought of Irene and Teresa reuniting. She remembered the havoc those two caused during their years as trainees...it was not something one could forget. Poor handler Charles...he wasn't able to sit down ever again with how paranoid he had ended up becoming!

Though how he managed to sit down on a pineapple to the point it was completely lodged in his own ass for a month straight was a mystery that never got solved. No one was able to prove it was Teresa and Irene that caused it, either...though, it was especially telling how satisfied the two of them looked back when it did happen. Not that Sophia couldn't blame them; handler Charles was an utter ass. One of those slimy pigs that saw Warriors like herself as possessions, the creep...

And that was only the very start of the hell those two caused together!

At the question, Irene gave Sophia a stiff nod that betrayed none of the sheer anxiety that was wrecking her very being. Teresa's handler was found dead near a town that had been burnt to the ground, with a single wound through the neck. Bandits were found at the scene of the destroyed town. Their corpses were rather grisly, the fact that Naruto's yoki was there was not a coincidence, as far as Irene was concerned. She guessed after her little boy woke up and found himself someplace completely unfamiliar to him, he wandered around and eventually found that town. Then the town itself was attacked by bandits and as they started burning, raping and pillaging, he ended up panicked and it caused him transform to protect himself.

Handler Orsey must have been in the area and fell prey to those bandits. It wouldn't have been the first time something like that had happened, nor would it be the last. Idiots...how could they protect their handlers from threats of the human element when Warriors were forbidden to harm humans at all? The Organization refused to answer that question.

"Yes, we're to meet up with Teresa and inform her of the death of Handler Orsey. And then we're to inform her that the five of us are to team up and locate the Seraph before the Abyss Trinity finds them." Irene instructed, inwardly adding that hopefully, she could let her old friend know who the Seraph really was and hope Teresa would do the right thing. She sincerely hoped Teresa would...

"I see." Noel mused aloud, before giving her superior an expectant look, "Do we know where she is?"

"Unfortunately, no," Irene answered with a shake of her head, "With Orsey dead and Teresa no longer getting assignments, we have to assume she's wandering about. We'll have to be careful as well, since the Abyssal Ones are keeping a very close eye on us warriors in the hopes of catching the Seraph."

"Alright," Priscilla chirped, looking up at Irene respectfully, "shall we get going?"

Irene exhaled and nodded; and with that, the four of them left the now purged town and began to track down Teresa of the Faint Smile, completely unaware that she was with the 'Seraph' in question.