28It was quiet. That was his first thought. Far too quite for a village, even one of this size. The second was mild surprise at the number of yoma he could sense in the village. Enough to taint the area with yoki, making it difficult to pinpoint locations. They must have been having quite a feast, he could smell the faint trace of blood, carried on the breeze. He walked into the village, heading toward what he thought was likely to be the town hall, meeting house, home of the town elders, whatever it was officially in a place this small and run down.
He would have made an odd sight to anyone, but to one who knew what he was, he cut an even stranger figure. An over large black robe with white diamonds towards the hem covered the green tunic he wore. Pants of the same shade as the tunic adorned his legs, though they cut off mid calf. On his feet were an odd pair of wooden sandals, suspended an inch off the ground by two pieces of wood perpendicular to the sole of the sandal. A green and white striped bucket hat pressed down his neck length blonde hair. A few days worth of stubble covered his chin, and his slim build contrasted with the enormous sword strapped to his back.
As he strode through the streets, the few people left outside turned to glance at him before turning away. He was surprised. Although few recognized him immediately-or at all-for what he was, he usually got more of a reaction that that. He walked up to a man loading a cart with crates of something.
A jovial tone rang out. "Greetings O man of labor! Could you perhaps direct me to the estate of your chief?"
The burly man glared at him then grunted. "Chief's been dead for a month. Benji's in charge now. Same building though, that big one in the middle."
The man in the striped hat bowed forward slightly. "I am sorry for your loss." With that, he turned on his heel causing his robes to billow around him and moved quickly toward the largest building.
/0\^_^/0\
It was not much more than a large town house, though the doors were rather impressive. He swung the doors open and walked toward the table in the center of the room. A group of perhaps a dozen men were gathered around it, muttering to each other in angry tones. The man seated at the table was slightly broader at the shoulders than the others, though shorter, and sported a full beard.
"Enough." He stood, slamming his fist into the table. "There is nothing we can do but wait for a response to our request. Though if it takes much longer, there won't be many of us left." A defeated tone had crept into his voice by the end.
"You really think the Claymores will be able to do anything? Everyone we have put on guard and patrol disappear. With this many of us gone missing," there was a slight bite to the word, "it would have to be a truly fearsome monster to…" He stopped when he noticed the incredibly strange man who had just walked into the room.
The man spoke. "I am here to see Benji." He pulled a fan from somewhere in his clothing, pointing it with unnecessary flare at the man seated at the table. "Are you he?"
"I am. And who are you? Travelers don't often come here anymore and they leave soon after. The ones that stay don't last long anyway. Have an unfortunate tendency to get eaten."
The odd blond man suddenly flipped his fan open and held it fluttering in front of his face. "I am but a humble traveling monster slayer sent by the Organization to assist in ridding your village of a great horror." The hat shadowed his eyes, and a sly grin could be seen just over the top of the fan. "Though it sounds to me that you have more of an infestation than just a single yoma." He flipped the fan closed into his left hand. "What?"
The men were staring at him, expressions varying from mild surprise to outright shock and curiosity. One of the men towards the back pushed his way to the front, unashamedly gaping. He was thin for a worker, but the muscles he had were hard and corded. "If you were sent to deal with our problems, then you must be a Claymore. No one else could wield one of those swords. But I thought only women could become Claymores. The men died horrible deaths."
'Not dead, and not as horrible as you think. More horrible for the rest of us, I should think,' the robed man thought, though he responded by waving his fan at his face and a wide grin. "The rest did. I'm just special like that." The fan snapped shut again and the tone of his voice turned serious. "Got any useful information for me, or do I just go out and kill the things?"
Benji grimaced. "Two months ago, the first person vanished. He was an old man named Roshi, and he just disappeared one night. It wasn't noticed for some time, he wasn't very well liked. But then others started to disappear. The most we ever found were blood stains in alleys. Now no one leaves their homes at night, but it doesn't help."
The swordsman's hand tipped his hat forward, casting his eyes into shadow. "I imagine it wouldn't do much. Yoma are quite strong after all. But you should know, even if it won't do much for you, that you are all rather terrible at playing pretend." There was shock plastered across the faces of the men as he spoke. "I could go on to explain all the pointless things you did here, but that would take time and you are all going to die anyway."
Realizing they were caught, the veins on Benji's arms bulged and his nails grown. His teeth sharpened and… his head was separated from his shoulders before he even had a chance to move. The remaining men in the room growled and charged toward the Claymore, transforming as they went, but before they took more than two steps, they were split into pieces.
The last man, the thin one, was shaking pressed up against the wall. What had happened? These were all respected members of the community, and Benji, Benji the chief. They were monsters? And the silver eyed slayer… he hadn't even seen the man move. He was still standing there, the fan in front of his face.
The silver eyed man grinned again. 'They never do anything particularly intelligent do they? Though this was more interesting than anything I have seen in a long time. Impersonating town elders…what next?'
He tipped his hat up slightly with one finger, addressing the man on the floor. "I normally have a vaguely entertaining speech here, but given what just happened I think I might forgo it just this once. A man in black will be along for the money later. Give it to him." He paused, looking around. "I thank you for your patronage." With that he bowed toward the thin man and walked out the door, his robes billowing around him.
/0\^_^/0\
The oddly dressed man sat at the edge of a small clearing leaning against his large sword, now stabbed into the ground, the bucket hat tipped low over his eyes. A rabbit roasted on a spit over the small fire burning merrily in from of him, the aroma permeating the clearing, especially for one of his senses. Once the rabbit finished cooking, he took it off the fire, holding it by the stick. The man ate half the animal before leaning back and looking vaguely bemused. Without warning, he hurled the small stick and the remains of the rabbit across the clearing like a miniature javelin, impaling the tree opposite him.
He leaned back onto his enormous sword, looking up to the heavens as if in askance. "All I want is to finish a big meal. Nothing grand, just a rabbit, or a bowl of soup or something. But no…!" he threw up his hands. "I get super powers and I don't need to eat. And of course not needing to means I'm incapable of eating a full meal. Oh joy!" His rant continued along that vein for another five or so minutes before a man in a black tight coat stepped out of the trees.
"You always were quite the odd one Kisuke," the man in black mused, half to himself. He had on a black jacket that fastened on one side and black pants. On his head was a black hat of a similar style to the other man's, though the brim was at a higher angle. Wire sunglasses covered his eyes despite what little amount of light there was to begin with, and from what little skin could be seen, he appeared to be completely hairless.
The newly identified Kisuke answered without turning. "Perhaps, but that's half the fun. Being normal is so very boring. Besides, even if I tried, I could hardly be normal by any definition of the word now could I?"
"Well that's certainly true." The man in black moved into the light, a bag clutched in one hand. "Quite a job you had this time. Anything interesting? You always complain that nothing interesting ever happens."
"They were pretending to be the town council. It was certainly new, but they fought no better than usual. Which is good I suppose, but hardly anything worth looking into." Kisuke closed his eyes, leaning back against the sword. "Assignment, Rubel?" he asked, curious. It had been months since his last awakened hunt, and he hadn't had a chance to mess with any of the organization other than Rubel in so long. Rubel never reacted to anything he did anyway, so there was hardly any point. Working with other warriors was fun, more for him though, than anyone else. Besides, there were only so many basic yoma exterminations that one could do before becoming utterly bored.
"Assignment. Yes. I think you will find this one more stimulating than what you have been doing here, but I doubt you will enjoy it. You will be working with several others, meet with them in the village four days travel to the north of here."
"Not even a name for this dinky little town, nor any information on the assignment?" Kisuke smirked, his eyes shaded by his hat. "That's how it goes I guess. Just enough information to get by." He stood suddenly, kicking dirt onto the fire. A fan appeared again in his hand, waving gently over the lower half of his face. "Nothing else for me to do here. Might as well be on my way. Later Rubel." He turned, robes billowing dramatically and walked off into the dark.
"You were ever the odd one Kisuke." Rubel addressed the dark. "I hope you can manage this. It will test even you." He too turned and waked into the dark, leaving only a pile of smoldering dirt covered cinders.