Chapter 5 – Prelude to extinction
Big things were going on inside the walls of the Organization's headquarters. It was way busier than normally due to the discovery of a certain warrior's true strength.
Ever since the Organization was founded they were struggling to get the Yoma plague under control. To do so they were merging a Yoma's flesh and blood with a human's body to create the silver-eyed warriors who were able to tell Yoma apart from humans and to slay them. Due to the huge swords they carried in order to do so they have been given the name Claymore by the people.
Whenever there was a Yoma in a town they could do nothing else but to rely on the help of one of those warriors, no matter how much they disliked it. The silver-eyed warriors were the only ones who could deal with a Yoma, after all.
The Organization, however, was anything but the saviors some of the people saw in them. Their purpose on that island was not to save the people from the Yoma. To say that they brought them there reflects the truth rather.
For more than 350 years there had been a war going on on the continent the people called Unikum due to them thinking that it was the only landmass on the whole planet. Well, they rather called it world. They had no idea of what a planet was, after all.
About 70 years before the peoples that were warring against each other formed two big alliances. One of them, however, had a very big advance: they had non-human allies, called the Descendants of Dragons. They were comparable with Claymore in their sleeping form and on the other hand comparable with Awakened Ones in their awakened form. The only difference was that they actually kept their senses together after awakening.
The moment the other side had to face them for real they founded the Organization in order to create a weapon suitable for fighting Awakened Descendants. Methods unknown, they found a way to capture living specimen of the Descendants. They had planned on directly putting a Descendant's flesh into a human's body in the hope of applying its original owner's strength into the subject. That, however, didn't work as planned.
If they used a Sleeping Descendant's flesh, the subject did not change much. The body was just accepting the Descendant's flesh as if it were its own. The only change was that the subjects grew an unbearable hunger for human flesh. They were all killed, of course.
If they used an Awakened Descendant's flesh, the result was pretty much an Awakened Being. In a sense, it was kind of what the Organization had planned: they kept their human minds and therefore were controllable. The downside was that these Beings rotted away withing weeks despite being alive. They also had no practical use in war.
A big breakthrough had been made short after. The Organization had not given up on the Descendant's flesh. The Sleeping Descendant's flesh did not make humans strong but gave them a hunger for human flesh. The Awakened Descendant's flesh made the humans strong but shortened their lifespan drastically. So they came up with a method to merge the flesh of a Sleeping and an Awakened Descendant. The result was a virus they simply called Parasite.
It was not really a living being but still it was living tissue. The Organization implanted it into humans. There the flesh dissolved into the human body and took over every part of it. Even the human's mind was taken over. The result was what the people call a Yoma.
Their existence had never been made public on Unikum. The Organization was afraid that the people would desert their alliance and join the Descendant's alliance.
However, they found their results far to valuable to just ignore them and so they searched for a place to do their research without the fear of having deserters. They found out that Unikum was not the only land in the world. They found numerous islands that were also inhabited by humans and therefore numerous test sides for their research.
One of their biggest breakthroughs were the Claymore. Made out of a human body and a Yoma's flesh and blood they got the ability to sense Yoki, something every Yoma, Awakened Being and Descendant had – and the Claymore, of course. In addition to that they also got a power great enough to at least slay Yoma. Some of them even were strong enough to slay Awakened Beings – in other words Awakened Descendants. To use that power they had to use their Yoki, but...
Every breakthrough has its drawback. Even though the warriors created from a human's body and a Yoma's flesh were rather strong and could sense Yoki as normal people could see light, they had to face a fate that was certain: awakening. Every warrior sooner or later had to awaken due to the overuse of Yoki. When a warrior awakens, he or she turns into a monster comparable to a Descendant. The problem with that was that the desire to eat human flesh suddenly took control of the warrior. You could say that he or she completely lost his or her mind after awakening.
An Awakened Being, however, was nothing to worry about too much. There were warriors strong enough to take them on and defeat them. There were but two problematic types of Awakened Beings: male Awakened Beings and former number Ones.
Male Awakened Beings were former male warriors who had awakened. For a male the process of awakening felt much like sexual pleasure, so the most of them didn't last more than a year until they awakened. The main problem about that was the fact that the males generally were stronger than the females. In other words: an awakened male was far worse of a matter than an awakened female. The Organization stopped making male warriors after the fifth generation.
Still, there was the matter of number ones awakening. A number one was the strongest warrior of his or her era at that time. That warrior was someone that mostly could only be endangered by numbers 2 to 5.
At that time the Organization had three awakened former number ones to deal with – the so called Abyssal Ones. The first number one to ever awaken was Easley, the first number one in that island's Organization's history. He occupied the north of the island. The second one to awaken was the second number one in history – Riful, a female warrior that led the warrior's forces after Easley's awakening. She occupied the western lands.
Lately a third Abyssal One had occupied the south. It was Luciela, the number one before Neerie. She awakened during a failed experiment of the Organization. Their original plan was to let a warrior awaken while the other one kept on pulling back the Awakened One's mind. They tried it with sisters – and it failed. Luciela awakened and killed her sister amongst half of the Organization's warriors in the process. That is what the Organization told their warriors, however.
Rafaela, Luciela's sister, was still alive. She got stripped off her number and was forced to hide somewhere in the lands of the east. During Neerie's era Rafaela actually was the strongest warrior alive. That being said it should be clear why she still was alive – the Organization had no means to go against her at that time.
Whatever the case, the Organization of that island had to deal with three Abyssal Ones. Normally they wouldn't have taken any action against them, but Luciela was a special case. Her awakening had taken place only about three years before. She already had awakened as Jacqueline became a warrior, meaning, that her latent power had already became her own.
However, the Organization had a nearly unbeatable team of warriors at hand – the Doublefingers. They got that name due to the fact that both of them carried not one but two claymores with them. Neerie's swords had her own symbol and that of Vanessa, in Vanessa's case it was vice versa. From the very beginning they had been sent on jobs together and had fast filled the spot Luciela and Rafaela had left. They were a force strong enough to take on Luciela in the state she was back then.
That, however, took the Organization some time to notice. All three eyes they had during Luciela's era were killed by her after awakening. The next generation bought forth only one eye – a black haired warrior, a failed experiment – or so they thought.
After acknowledging that warrior's true power they started to plan something they had never done before – the hunt for an Abyssal One, Luciela of the south. For that sole reason the Organization had gathered their two most valuable forces – Blankface and the Doublefingers.
###
Rubel led Jacqueline through the endless hallways of the Organization's headquarters. Whenever she was to follow a Man in Black through them she wondered about how they were able to orient themselves there.
While they passed the dark corridors that were only lit by very few torches Rubel told her about her upcoming assignment: "You will remember, Jacqueline, that we had you measure Luciela's strength a while ago, am I right?"
The tall warrior didn't care to answer. She knew that he knew that she never forgot about things she had done during a job. She just kept following her handler through the maze the Organization was.
"You could answer questions from time to time," he continued, "I am not a mind reader you know?"
Again Jacqueline kept quiet.
Rubel sighed. 'That girl is hopeless,' he thought. Even though he knew that Jacqueline was not the talkative one, something felt off about her. So he asked her what it might have been.
"I just wondered," she plainly stated, "why there are four powerful warriors at the Organization's headquarters, including me. Seems to me like something is about to happen."
"Sharp as always" he complimented her. "You only have to care about two of them, excluding yourself, however. The fourth one has been put under the care of number 11, Hitomi."
"Huh?" she wondered for a moment. "Why would the chief put someone so strong in the care of a traitor?"
"The reasons are simple," Rubel began his explanation after taking a sudden turn to the right to enter another hallway, "first of all Hitomi is not really a traitor. She may be problematic sometimes, but she is a rather obedient warrior and a rather strong one, too. She is not unable to aim for number one. About the one she was put in charge for, she has just recently received her rank and symbol."
Jacqueline stopped walking then to pause for a moment. Someone that strong that had just recently finished her training?
Rubel's voice receded itself and Jacqueline noticed that she had fallen behind, so she caught up with him again.
"She also is someone to aim for number one. Both of them are offensive types that made an excessive speed their own. The difference between the two of them is the fact that number 11 has abnormal strength but is no good when it comes to sensing Yoki. With Hysteria – number 8, by the way – it's vice versa. In addition to that, number 8 has no real combat experience. We can't afford such a talent to go to waste, so we decided to put her into a team with number 11. The both of them will gain from it."
That way it sounded reasonable to Jacqueline. She wasn't used to the Organization actually giving its actions some thought beforehand, but she felt that it was better that way. However, that had nothing to do with her job, as she had figured, so she remained silent to hear the rest of what Rubel had to tell her.
After having left her some time to process the input he had given her, he continued: "The other two strong presences you feel will work together with you in your next job."
Through her blank face it was unable to tell that she was quite a bit excited about that fact. Also one of the presences felt familiar to her for some reason. She felt that Rubel and her were nearing them.
"As I said, we had you measure Luciela's strength. After doing a lot of considering and reconsidering, discussing and rediscussing, we came to the conclusion that we might have a force strong enough to kill Luciela."
They stopped in front of a door. The black haired warrior clearly could feel that both of the strong presences she felt were behind it.
"I may acquaint you with our most powerful force," he said and opened the door while making a stage wait, "our number one and number two, the Doublefingers!"
Jacqueline, completely ignoring Rubel's efforts to be dramatic, entered the room to find two warriors who sat at a table, facing the entrance. The room itself was but a small chamber that, in fact, had nothing more than an illiberal table with four stools around it. Two of them were occupied by the Organization's most powerful team of warriors: number one, Neerie, and number two, Vanessa.
The former was recognized by Jacqueline, but she still introduced herself to them formally: "I am Jacqueline. I am the Organization's number 6 as well as the Organization's eyes. I will be on a job with you together."
The warriors mustered each other. The left one, Neerie, had wavy hair that ran down to her back. Her bangs were as long as the other hair and framed her face. Her chest was rather big for her youthful face. She was no older than eighteen years was Jacqueline's guess. The right one appeared to be a bit shorter than her comrade. She had straight combed back hair that reached down to her bottom. Her face looked stiff and honest and like that of a mature woman. The both of them wore the standard uniform of an Organization's warrior – a skin tight, light gray cloth uniform, slim steel boots and bracers, a belt around her waist with rhombic steel plates attached to it to protect her lower body, as well as three-ply pauldrons as a sign of them being in the top 5. In addition to that they had gray capes that reached down to their back.
The symbols of their crests were simple, but memorable. Neerie's Symbol was a vertical bar that was crossed in the middle by a bar of half the length from the top left to the bottom right. Vanessa's symbol looked like a sharp arrow pointing downwards.
Neerie barely remembered the black haired woman but was not sure wherefrom. Despite her black hair the only thing that separated her from Neerie and Vanessa in terms of looks were her two-sly pauldrons, a sign of her being a Single Digit but not part of the top five. Her symbol consisted of a vertical bar that was crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar thrice as long as the vertical one.
The first thing about Jacqueline to be noticed by Vanessa was her black hair. She arose from her stool and walked towards her, stopping just a few centimeters away from her. She was a b it annoyed by the fact that she had to slightly look up to meet her fellow warrior's blank eyes, but not as much as by the fact of the Organization actually expecting her to work with a failed experiment.
"The Organization must be outta'ts mind," she said with a monotone voice while giving Jacqueline an unrequited stare, "making someone like her a Single Digit. Maybe they were drunk or something?"
Jacqueline did not show a reaction to Vanessa's rudeness but felt angered inside. Again she was judged just by her looks. Still she kept calm and simply stated that there was no meaning in questioning the higher up's decisions.
Rubel sighed, "Please sit down, everyone. As Jacqueline correctly stated, you have to bear with chief Rimuto's decision, if you like it, or not."
"Ts," Vanessa sizzled. She abruptly turned around, making her hair and cape swing, and took her seat next to Neerie again. The latter had not commented the situation, neither acoustically, nor mimically, nor gestically. She knew her partner very well – and therefore the fact that she hated working together with someone else than her and that she never failed to find a reason to complain about someone.
Jacqueline leaned her back against the wall right to the door and just said: "Standing will do."
Rubel then also entered the room and closed the door behind him quietly. He also did not take a seat and remained standing in front of the door.
"So what now, Rubel? We know already what we're gonna do. What're we gonna need her for?" the more mature looking woman asked with a very displeased look.
"My, my," the Man in Black calmly said, "you are indeed nice as always."
Vanessa's gaze wandered to Jacqueline's eyes for a moment, just for her to realize, that Jacqueline stared into one of the torches that lit the room.
"Honestly," she groaned, "we'll be fine on our own. No need for a millstone round our necks."
Suddenly the ground around Jacqueline as well the wall behind her got small cracks. A short but strong flash of Yoki could be felt by Neerie as well as Vanessa. The former just sighed inwardly, already knowing that Vanessa was about to cause trouble. Again. Vanessa, on her part, was startled by the sheer amount of Yoki back then. For the moment she decided to keep a low profile.
Rubel sighed again, looking at Jacqueline: "Don't let your temper get the better of you. Against those two that would be a bad idea, even if it's you."
Jacqueline could at that moment clearly see why Neerie was the number one and Vanessa the number two. Her short outburst had stirred up Vanessa's Yoki completely while Neerie's had not changed a bit.
"Someone who gets startled so easily should not have such a big mouth," she stated calmly, "it might get yourself in trouble some day."
That had it been for Vanessa's low profile. In a nearly invisible move she jumped towards Jacqueline with the aim to punch her. However, just a moment before she would have struck, Jacqueline's left hand calmly grabbed her face and nonchalantly pushed her to the left, leading to her breaching four walls.
While picking herself up and muttering "Ouch, that hurt," she brushed off the dust. The other rooms she impolitely crossed where all empty. Even though that would have looked painful to any viewer, Vanessa was as good as new.
Jacqueline still had her palm directed towards the older woman but slowly lowered it while saying: "See? This is what you get for being angered too easily. You have not done your homework well. I am the Organization's eyes. I can sense, read and even manipulate Yoki like other people can walk. Don't even consider fighting me on your own. Your Yoki is to wild, to easy to read, because you let yourself be angered too easily. You need to calm yourself more."
"He," Vanessa chuckled while slowly walking towards Jacqueline, "got a pretty big mouth yrself there. No worries, I've done my homework. Y're the one they call Blankface. The black haired warrior that's able to predict 'n alter an enemy's attack like none's ever been able before. Y'can sense whoever y like over the whole continent. 'N whatever y'do, y always have that stupid face. It's like a puppet's. Y'know number 7? Tattletale Lisa? After hearin' 'bout y she came up with a new nickname. I'm not gonna tell y, though. Y'll hear it soon enough."
"However," she continued, reaching her hand out to Jacqueline, "Y're not that small of a fry I thought y to be. Me's Vanessa, the Old Man's Association's number two."
The slightly taller woman took her fellow warrior's offer. Vanessa took her seat again and before Rubel could finally talk about their job with them, also Neerie decided to introduce herself:
"I am Neerie, the Organization's number one. Seems like you and Nessie will get along well. I'm glad. The both of us are looking forward to working with you."
Jacqueline also took a seat then. Rubel was relieved a bit back then. The two most important forces of the Organization slaying each other would have been inauspicious. Net that he had minded that personally, though.
"Well then, ladies," he started his explanation, "the three of you will dispose of the Abyssal One, Luciela of the south."
###
'Honestly', she thought, 'from the west to the east, from the east to the south... what do these bastards think?'
"Is something the matter?" the childlike voice of the younger warrior asked her mentor. She was looking up to her with a curious face.
Hitomi just sighed: "It's nothing to give too much thought. It just is on my nerves a bit that I have to travel so much lately. What do I have an area assigned to me if I just roam the whole continent?"
Hysteria turned her look down to the ground for a bit to think but then looked up to Hitomi again to answer: "Well, we have been given an important job, haven't we? You do remember what Orsay told us, don't you?"
"I do..."
###
"That is rare. The Organization sending us to slay Yoma even though there has been no request?"
"You are right. This time is different, however."
"What do you mean?"
"We are talking about ten Yoma nests here. A total number of about 300 Yoma. As of now they are preying on the visitors of the towns they have occupied. That won't work forever."
"Then they will just go to other villages in small groups. They send requests, we kill them and – we get money. I don't see the problem."
"That's why you are not fit to be a leader, Hitomi. We are talking about 300 Yoma, just to remind you. Even if they form small groups, what I think is unlikely, we would still have at least one hundred villages suddenly wanting us to take care of the Yoma there."
"So what? We have forty-seven warriors. Even if we don't send them all, it should still be done in three to four weeks."
"You don't get it, do you? The Yoma are not dumb. If they scent a warrior too strong for them they run. So if you send a strong warrior after a small group of Yoma they'll think twice about messing with her."
"I see. You're implying that they would leave the moment they sense us."
"Yes. It's different, however, if they are bunched together like they are right now. Even though they are no pack animals, they know very well that being together makes them strong. They even tend to overestimate themselves."
"I see. That's the reason why killing them now is better. But still... take Shorty and me," she continued without taking notice of her being poked by Hysteria, "we both are fast. There is no way a Yoma could run from any of us. Ever."
"I know. But how long do you think it will take clearing a hundred villages and towns – or more? Not matter how fast you are, sooner or later you will have to rest. If there were more as capable as you two, no problem. But our situation is different."
"You have Shorty," she continued without taking notice of her being poked by Hysteria, "the Doublefingers, Blankface, Vectra the Persistent and of course me. That are five forces fast enough to not let any Yoma escape."
"That is true, but the Doublefingers and Blankface are assigned to another job of top priority. Number three, Vectra, is busy with the requests for Awakened Ones that have been mushrooming for a few months now. That only leaves the two of you. So we want you to take care of this matter as soon as possible."
"What a shame. 300 Yoma, that would make 90 million Beras."
"Yes, but we can't afford the Yoma plague to get out of control because of money. The two of you, do not fail this mission!"
"Don't worry, Shorty," she continued without taking notice of her being poked by Hysteria, "and I will not disappoint you."
"Very well."
###
"Still it's a waste to let that much money get away," Hitomi stated.
"But 300,000 Beras a Yoma, isn't that pretty much? If I remember correctly, my parents earned about 3,000 a Year together," her young comrade explained. "An ordinary village has about fifty families and most of them don't even earn that much. So even if we would want to get the money we still would not get it because the people would not be able to pay for even a single Yoma – not talking about a group of them."
Hitomi sighed. Of course her companion was right: if a village wanted a Yoma to be taken care of, that regularly meant a whole month of sacrifice for every resident there. No meat, no new clothes, overtime and sacrificing savings.
The money was, however, not the only thing Hitomi felt uneasy about. She also wondered why the Yoma would form groups in the first place. Yoma were not dumb, as Orsay had told them, but still they had no idea of tactics and stuff like that. Grouping together only gave them numbers but that was all there was to it. It was not like them being able to make strategic moves and suchlike because they lacked intelligence too much to do so.
As they closed in to their first target, Hysteria stopped to take a close view of the village. "33 presences that feel like Yoma," she stated, "but there is one more that feels different. It also is no warrior."
Suddenly Hitomi understood. "I see," she began to explain, "an Awakened Being is leading them."
That term caught Hysteria's attention. She never had heard of Awakened Beings before and therefore was curious what that might have been.
Her mentor was slightly pissed by the fact that the Organization still didn't tell their trainees about things like that. So she had to explain it herself: "You know, that we turn into a Yoma if we surpass the limits of our Yoki, am I right?"
Hysteria nodded.
"That's bullshit."
"Huh?"
"If a warrior like you or me overuse our Yoki, we lose our human minds and our body mutates into something far worse than a Yoma," she explained.
"An Awakened Being, I assume?" she asked and got a nod as an answer briefly after.
Hitomi started walking again and was closely followed by Hysteria. The latter felt a bit uneasy about the Awakened Being but felt safe with Hitomi around.
The elder warrior noticed her uneasiness and tried to reassure her young companion: "Do not worry. I have plenty of experience fighting Awakened Ones. The two of us together will be enough to take it down, it does not feel that strong. However, we have to take care of the small fry first. They will only get troublesome during the fight with their leader. I essentially planned to let you watch me to see how to take care of multiple opponents, but the way it is I will need your assistance. Are you ready for that?"
Hysteria thought about it for a moment but then, as they entered the village, drew her blade and enthusiastically shouted: "I am!"