Awakening of the Soul - Prologue

Summary: To Awaken means losing one's humanity. At least, that's what the Organization says. Sequel to A Passing Memory.

The sequel to A Passing Memory, as promised.

Fun pointless little fact: I was listening to the beat of G-Dragon and Taeyang's song Good Boy while writing the yoma fighting scene. For some reason it just... fits, in my mind anyway.

Blood flew through the air, parting like rain around the blade that had just cut through it's most recent target. Purple specks landed on the gray slabs of stone below with another swish of the blade.

The body of the yoma slid to the ground beyond the Claymore, split open from shoulder to hip to lay in a puddle of purple blood.

Miria stepped away from the corpse, turning on her heel to face the direction of the other yoma she could still sense. With the villagers boarded up in their houses she took her time walking down the path between the buildings. The only other sound besides the clicking of her boots on the stone was the wind racing around the wood framework, howling as it slipped through the thin slits between windows, doors, cracks in the walls.

From that it was obvious to her the yoma was trying to hide, trying to suppress it's yoki. It really should know better. A yoma could never hide from a Claymore, not for very long anyway.

"Do us both a favor and shed your human skin, yoma. I can sense you, surely you know this? Your comrades died fighting. Do you really want to die hiding?"

"Claymore," it hissed the single word with such venom a human would have frozen on the spot from the hatred filling the word.

Miria only stepped back as the yoma fell from the sky, having launched itself off the roof of one of the houses. The stone cracked beneath it's feet where she had been a second before. There was drool running down it's chin as it stared up at her, realizing it's mistake as her sword cut through it's neck and the demon's head went flying to smack into a wall.

She swung her blade once more to dispel the blood still clinging to the metal before sliding it into the slot in her armor.

Miria walked back to where the chief of the village had hid, behind a closed door. She spoke through the cracks in the wood, "The job is done. A man-in-black will come for the money, give it to him." With the message delivered she turned and made her way out of the village.

The road back to the Organization had been short, even so she sighed as she buried the tip of her sword into earth, lowering herself to the ground to lean against the blade and stare out at the rocky outcrop that the Organization had made it's home. Ermita had told her to return here after not receiving any new requests for yoma to exterminate.

"So foolish, really. There's villages with yoma in them right now but without a request the Organization can do nothing. I'm sure they'll send one once enough people die and they realize the yoma isn't going to just 'go away.'"

It was a wonder that the man wasn't a monster himself for saying such things. Of course, that could be said for the whole of the Organization. They were only interested in the money anyway. What they did with all of it was still beyond her. Besides getting materials to make the armor and sword she carried there didn't seem to be much else for them to spend it on.

She would have to find out what they did with it. Maybe the money would give her a lead to some of their darker secrets. It was also possible it was being spent on a dark secret. Now she just needed to wait to get an assignment so she could leave the Organization without raising suspicions on just what she was doing in her free time.

"Oh, it's you. Phantom Miria."

She turned at the sound of a voice, eyes landing on a single bulging eye surrounded by muscle and veins, the flesh stripped away from what she could only guess to having been one of his experiments. "Dae." Every time she tried to see what experiments entailed she would be forced to go back or be found one of his observant sentries. He always put more security than necessary around his workplace. He said it was so he wasn't 'disturbed,' but she doubted that was the case.

He grinned, half his teeth showing from the lack of skin on his face. "I thought I felt something familiar, but it seems I was mistaken. Unless... you haven't come into contact with an Awakened Being recently, have you?"

"No. I haven't been on any Awakened Being hunts recently." The Organization had failed to give her another hunt so far after the last one. Where they had given her wrong information. Which was rare, but unusual enough to let her know she was close to figuring out something they would rather her not know. "Anything else?"

He was still standing there, regarding her. "I wasn't sure at first, but there's something different about you. Are you sure you didn't come across anyone unusual in your travels?"

Miria frowned, looking back out at the cliffs. Now he was asking her about unusual people on her trip? Didn't he have some experiment that demanded his attention? She had come out here to have some peace, not be interrogated over something different that Dae thought he had sensed about her. "I'm sure."

"Oh." He sounded disappointed. "I could have sworn there was... something human about you." She glanced back to him. What exactly was he going on about? Dae smirked now that he had her attention again. "It's just... Well, I'm wondering what human would possibly be intimate with one of your kind, considering the state of your body."