Ch383. Kaguya's first subordinate

Rei arrived back at the town square in less than fifteen minutes and the Claymores were almost done bandaging up their injured comrades.

In hindsight, he realized they would have not been able to run even if they wanted unless they abandoned most of their injured since he wasn't away for long enough for that.

Now... that made Rei feel like an asshole for warning them.

Several Claymores finally realized he was back and were about to greet him when Isley appeared next to him, carrying dizzy Raki on his back which made the Claymores stiffen.

They correctly guessed the man was a Yoma and that put them on guard.

Well, except for one Claymore who stood frozen as her eyes landed on the boy who shakily climbed down from Isley's back.

"Raki!" Clare exclaimed and rushed towards him.

Hearing his name being called out by a familiar voice, Raki stiffened for a second before his eyes went wide and his expression beamed in happiness as he realized to whom that voice belonged. He barely managed to turn in the voice's direction before he was engulfed into a tight hug.

Rei winced, hearing the thud as Raki's forehead collided with Clare's chest. The woman most likely forgot her strength was a few magnitudes higher than a normal human in her rush and Raki would have a bump on his head for the foreseeable future because of that.

Rei decided to ignore the reunion between the two as he was not interested in Clare's fussing over Raki and the boy's childish embarrassment.

Rei would have been happiest if the two finally got a room and shagged their petty issues into nonexistence. It was obvious they wanted from the way they looked at each other but they pussy-footed around it to a cringe-worthy degree.

Well, no skin off Rei's nose. At least the boy would have something else to focus on rather than his pathetic grudge against him for killing Priscilla. Rei didn't give him enough time to act upon it but he could plainly see the boy's agitation from his body language.

Noticing the wary looks both Miria and Flora were giving Isley, Rei decided to clear up any possibility of future problems, "By the way, this is Isley. He decided to join me rather than die." He casually said and shrugged.

Suddenly, the wary looks thrown in Isley's direction increased, causing him to sheepishly chuckle.

The Claymores realized this was the motherfucker who sent the army of Awakened Beings at them but they were also aware of the fact they were too weak to do anything to him.

While this could damage the loyalty of some Claymores, in the long run, it would show them they were not really all that special. Maybe it would push them to train themselves harder.

Or not.

Rei was honestly more interested in getting Tsunade someone to experiment with and Isley was quite a good specimen.

He was one of the strongest Awakened Beings in existence and there was certainly the usual arrogance and cruelty of Yoma ingrained in him but he still had a big part of his human personality. The soft pretty boy persona of his was not entirely a facade and his quick surrender proved he had a good head on his shoulders.

And who knows? Maybe Tsunade would be capable of restoring more of his humanity and stopping his need for human intestines.

Rei definitely wanted her to look at Claymores and their genetic make-up while trying to finish their mutation in the most optimal way. There was no reason to leave them in this 'unawakened' stage, always on the edge between becoming Yoma and being half-human. It was unstable and that meant it was an unfinished, crude, shitty experiment.

Even Orochimaru's Cursed Seal had more finesse than the method of creating Claymores. At least the Cursed Seal bearers could transform at will and learn to control it rather than this half-Yoma bull the girls had to learn to live with and be in constant fear of being turned into a man-eating monster.

"He won't attack us, will he?" Flora cautiously asked, loud enough for her comrades to hear her and Rei inwardly smiled.

While Miria looked resigned and had the expression of grudging acceptance, Flora did the necessary thing.

The answer to her question was obvious but it needed to be asked if only for the peace of mind of her comrades. They needed to hear it. Needed to hear they did not need to worry about being killed by Isley.

Not that it would completely put them at ease but quite a bit of the tension would be alleviated by that.

Rei doubted Flora actually understood the full effect of her question. He doubted she knew how important it was to put the minds of her comrades at ease. Not entirely. They just went through a suicide fight against monsters that could, would, and should have wiped them out at their leisure and barely survived.

And now, there was another, much stronger, monster like that going to be near them 24/7?

Everybody was different but the psychological impact of this could make quite a few of them into a nervous wreck quite easily. At least, they needed some reassurance to be able to sleep at night.

"No," Rei calmly reassured them, "if he wants to live he won't attack you." And gave a meaningful look to Isley who awkwardly nodded, not knowing what else to do.

The Claymores looked a bit better after hearing that... well, as good as a bunch of injured and exhausted warriors could look.

Now that these matters were dealt with, Rei focused inwardly on the mental connection he had with Kaguya. Despite her being out of the seal, their connection for some reason didn't disappear when the seal was destroyed.

Rei had no idea why as it was basically just a connection to her mind through the seal that no longer existed. As for Kaguya, asking her for the reason was like asking a 5-year-old child why the sky was blue.

She had no clue.

It was one of these mysteries that were unsolvable for Rei with his current knowledge but since it caused no harm to either of them, he decided to just shrug it off and be glad it remained.

'I am done. What about you?' He asked.

There was silence for a while but he could feel Kaguya felt... aggravated and mildly frustrated.

Before Rei could start to wonder why, a swirl in the air appeared in front of him and Kaguya appeared there with a...

'Is that Riful?' Rei thought in baffled surprise.

'Yes. How did you know?' Kaguya curiously replied, reminding Rei that their mental connection was still open.

'Er... Konan's reports. What is she doing with you?'

A feeling of irritation was conveyed through the connection as Kaguya mentally huffed, 'I was just walking around, enjoying nature while Konan got her part of the job done when this little kid appeared in front of me with some tall and dumb monster, all arrogant and condescending.'

'Ah. You probably didn't have your chakra suppressed enough and she felt a smidge of it.' Rei nodded, totally able to see something like that happening.

'So I naturally had to teach them a lesson!' Kaguya indignantly proclaimed.

Now that Rei looked closer at Riful, she did seem... torn in places.

'The tall guy died quite fast though. He couldn't even withstand having his head cut off. What a weakling.' Kaguya continued her rant.

'Right...' Rei quietly deadpanned.

Not even noticing Rei's reaction, Kaguya just continued pouring out her grievances, 'But this little girl... I just have no idea how to kill her! I thought about just dousing her with ocean-worth of lava alongside this entire island or something but then I remembered you actually want to keep it so I held myself back.' She petulantly acknowledged and Rei sweatdropped.

He could kinda see why Hagoromo and Hamura saw no other way than to seal her after hearing her carefreely mention destroying an entire continent because someone annoyed her.

Fortunately, she listened to him and Rei was good with children...

Ups, he meant good with childish people.

'Riful's real body should be... I have no idea, to be honest, but I know these ribbon-like strips forming her humanoid body are not it. You can tear it as much as you want and she would be fine.'

'Yeah, that much I gathered after I tore her limbs and head off for the hundredth time.' Kaguya mentally scowled. 'And now the girl is all clingy and stuff, calling me master with a starry-eyed look. It is creepy!'

'Uuu~, did little Kaguya get her first subordinate?' Rei teased, laughing his ass off.

Outwardly it only came out as a short chuckle but the annoyed look on Kaguya's face somewhat deepened as she suddenly smacked Riful's head, causing her to plant her face into the ground.

Riful quickly sprang up again, sitting on her knees next to Kaguya like an obedient dog. The entire picture was... hilarious and weird.

Both the group of Claymores and Isley were not spared gaping and gawking but neither Riful nor Kaguya gave a rat's ass for these plebs.

'Oh, well...' Rei decided it was in his best interest to ignore the situation. It will sort itself out somehow. No need to participate in needless drama. 'Up for some small terraforming now?'

'I suppose.' Kaguya pouted. 'It is the only reason why I am even here. I would have been completely fine staying at home with my cookie jar.'

'Ei, don't complain like an old widow.' Rei started, barely preventing himself from choking in laughter when Kaguya narrowed her eyes at him.

'I am an old widow.' Kaguya dryly stated.

Putting on his best innocent look and ignoring her statement, Rei continued, 'Now that you have a subordinate, you can order her to learn cooking for you or something. See? Me dragging you here was actually very beneficial for you!'

Kaguya sighed, shaking her head but the idea obviously appealed to her. On the other hand, this day was shaping up to be one massive headache and she was in dire need of a mug of hot chocolate if she wanted to keep herself from killing somebody.

The Duff, or Daft, or whatever was the name of Riful's shredded boy toy, did not count.

'Whatever. Just tell me what you need of me.'