Greetings all, I have been reading fan fiction for many years and have often thought about writing some myself, well the time has finally come for me to try my hand at this stuff, so here I go. Feel free to review and tell me what you think. Oh, and there will also be some references in the story see if you can spot them.

I don't own Claymore.

Chapter 1: The Last of a Kind

An old man coughed into his hand, listlessly he watched people pass him by. He held out his other hand limply, waiting for someone, anyone to show some decency.

Most people simply ignored him, either driven away by his haggard appearance or simply not having enough time or money to worry about anyone other than themselves.

He felt a small bit of metal slip into his hands and looked up to see a solid gold bera now in his grasp. His eyes quickly shot up as he saw a young man giving him a small smile. The elderly man quickly stood up, grasping the young man's hand and shaking it vigorously. "Thank you! Thank you!" He said with genuine sincerity.

The youth sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and he chuckled lightly. "No problem, you looked like you were in need."

The old man let go, still shaking with joy. "With this I can buy food enough to last me the week!" He exclaimed. "I can't thank you enough!" He said before running off to the market. The youth gave a smirk as he watched the aged man speed off before he turned and walked on.

"Ahh… such a beautiful day…" Sighed the young man. The youth himself was only slightly taller and heavier than average, yet his physique not very brawny or muscled but rather lean and toned.

He wore a 2-piece gray skin-tight jumpsuit, over that he wore a dark grey traveler's cloak with the hood up, obscuring his many of his facial features. On his wrists were dull worn vambraces with weathered leather gloves, and tattered steel-toed boots.

But there were one thing about him that stood out from others. A large, bandaged, cross-like object weighing down his back. Although, if the object was of any weight at all, the youth didn't show it.

It was a quiet little village he'd found, nothing really stood out about it. It was simply a run-of-the-mill town, mountainous terrain, remote, quiet, peaceful, like its inhabitants.

All but a few.

A little ways off a group of burly thugs saw the interaction from a distance and saw the flipping gold piece.

"Did you see that?" One of the thugs whispered to the other.

"Sure did." He whispered back.

"Ha!" Another barked. "No one carries that kind of money around and wastes it on a beggar without having a little more to go around, if you know what I mean!"

"True that!" A third agreed. "I saw him just stroll into the village too. Travelers don't stay very long in dinky little villages like this, probably will move on out of here by the end of the day."

"Let's get the boss then!" Another suggested. "See what he thinks about relieving that boy of his o-so heavy burden! Haha!"

The thugs slinked away back to their leader, unnoticed by the young man who walked on not having a care in the world.

"Really?" The leader questioned, his subordinate, making sure he'd heard right.

"Yes, sir, Heroth, sir!" One of the peon piped up, "Saw it with our own eyes! A solid gold bera!" He exclaimed, greed gleaming in his eyes.

"Hmm, I suppose you're right… that is rare to see in a small village like this…" He paused putting his finger to his lips, thinking the situation over.

"Yeah, boss he's probably loaded!" He added quickly. "Probably a monk or something on a mission. Given money to get by and help the needy."

"ALRIGHT IT'S DECIDED!" Heroth bellowed, standing up suddenly. "GET READY TO MOVE, BOYS! GOT US A MONK TO ROB!" he hollered to his gang, a group of six burly thugs who had made their way on the misfortune of others.

Meanwhile…

The young man was heading out of town, the sun was going down and he was making good time to wherever.

He suddenly spotted an overturned transport cart, with a missing wheel and a ragged woman kneeling down beside it, dirtying herself and attempting repair for said cart.

"P-please, don't hurt me, here." She pleaded holding up a loaf of bread, "Take anything you want, see? Food, take it." She held up the pastry shaking.

"Not gonna hurt you." He replied.

"Y-yeah? W-well that's what the last guy said!" She snapped, then as if considering her options she began again. "C-could you help me? The wheel came off, I can't fix it. Maybe if I… if I could…" She trailed off.

The young man however was paying attention to other things, he inhaled the air and felt around in his surroundings, feeling the masked presences.

"You know the only bad thing about heavy weapons...?" He asked to no one in particular. "IT'S ABSOLUTE SHIT FOR AN AMBUSH!"

The nearby bushes rumbled and out came Heroth and his gang, filling up the path before the young man and slightly flanking him on either side. Even the smallest of among them a full head-taller than he, the woman simply cowered behind her cart.

"I am impressed!" The gang leader started, leading from the center of the pack, towering over the youth and looking down with a smug, if tooth deficient, grin. "This boy heard us from thirty feet away! You must have some big ears to be able to listen for that!" He said swaying his head to either side of him, as a round of crackles and laughter sounded off.

The young man remained impassive at the display of power as he waited for the men before him to finish.

"What you got on your back there?" Inquired Heroth as he stepped up to the young man, his barreled chest now almost obscuring anything else from the young man's view.

"My burden." He deadpanned, not intimated in the slightest by the hulk of a man breathing into his personal space.

"Looks expensive."

"I doubt you'd understand its worth."

"Ha! I'll be the judge of that." He held out his hand. "Give it here." He barked.

The youth paused for a moment, then reached behind his back, grabbing the object around the top before removing it, and letting it hover over the ground for a moment before letting go. The object sunk part-way into the ground with a dull thud.

The young man took a few steps away, then motioned to it. "Go ahead."

"Smart." Heroth said striding past the youth. He gripped the object and pulled up.

It didn't move.

He shifted his weight, grabbed with both hands and pulled, harder and harder. He grunted with effort but the object hardly even shifted in the dirt. The veins popped out of his head, he continued to struggle with the object and his cohorts started snickering to each other as they watched him struggle.

He rounded on them with a growl and they silenced.

After a few more minutes of fruitless struggling he let go. "What the hell…?" He turned to the youth. "What is this? Some kind of trick?"

"No trick."

The gang boss snarled and stomped over to him, now standing right before the youth, bending down slightly. "Are you trying to make a fool outta me?"

"You seem to do a fine job of that all on your own." The young man observed.

Heroth was about to pop a blood vessel, but then suddenly calmed. He ran his fingers through his hair, a small chuckle escaping him. "Been a long time since someone had the balls to talk to me like that." He looked at the youth. "What are you anyway? Some kind of monk?"

"I'm nobody."

"Well 'Nobody', my boys tell me you have some beras on ya?"

The young man shifted slightly, but said nothing.

"Well? Are ya gonna answer me?"

"I'll tell you what… if you guys go back to whatever hole you crawled out of, I'll just pretend this never happened." The youth said with a smile.

"HA! You here that, boys?!" The rest laughed again as Heroth continued to address the young man before him. "And what happens if we don't?"

"Then know, that whatever comes next… is on you." The youth slightly stepped to the side to speak the gang. "That goes for you all as well!"

One of them spoke up. "Boss! You just gonna let this punk bad mouth us?!"

Heroth waved it off. "Yeah, yeah, I got it!" He addressed the youth again. "That was a good laugh, boy. Now hand over everything you got."

The youth remained silent, seeming unusually still, almost statue like.

"I said, 'Hand over everything you got.'"

"…"

The gang boss pushed the youth's chest. "You listenin' boy?"

The younger man took a step back at the push, his hood falling as he moved, revealing his youthful and clean-shaven face, as well his silvery spiky hair which, although on the short side, stuck up and forward, along with dark-rimed welding goggles which concealed any outside vision to the existence of his eyes.

He adjusted his stance returning to his previous position. "Am now." He replied, addressing the hulking man. "You listening to me?"

"Yeah."

"Good… good." The youth affirmed, he then looked straight into Heroth's eyes his voice becoming cold and final. "Put that hand on me again, and you won't be getting it back." He finished loud enough to be heard by all.

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Heroth laughed once more as his bandits joined in on the hilarity. "Can you believe this fuckin' guy?" He asked his men, who only gave answers in the form of large shit-eating grins.

"Alright… You wanna do it the hard way…" He said softly reaching towards the young man's shoulder.

A flash of motion suddenly appeared between them, closely followed by the whistling of steel.

To say that anyone there was surprised would be an understatement, the whole group was dumbfounded as Heroth looked at his freshly made stub and back to the young man with utter disbelief.

He whispered quietly. "How'd you do that?" Heroth stepped back and kneeled down on the path holding his stub whining to his men. "He just cut my hand off!" He sobbed, the group simply looked from their boss to the figure and back again.

"What are you waitin' for?" Heroth screamed at his men through throbs of pain. "KISS HIM!"

The men looked at their boss then each other, one asking. "What'd he say?"

"He's in shock…" The youth observed as he addressed the group, drawing his arms out from under his cloak. "I think he meant 'kill him'…"

The group soon recovered from their initial shock and charged at him, weapons of all shapes and sizes drawn.

The first came at him with a large maul, holding it above his head as he took aim and swung down. The young man side-stepped the clumsy weapon and disarmed the man with lightning fast jabs up his torso, then quickly spinning and kicking the man in the solar plexus, the force enough to knock him off his feet and send him flying past his fellows.

He second neared with a sword as the third followed close behind with a spear. The young man quickly grabbed the discarded maul and swung around the weapon with incredible speed, hitting the second thug squarely in the side, pulverizing bone and organ alike. The second was sent flying into the spearman, knocking the latter to the ground with the collision.

The fourth thug was smaller carrying two swords. He flailed them around wildly in arcs, as he drew close he aimed his wild slashes at his foe. The young man didn't even flinch as he produced a combat knife and with ease picked apart the unruly style before disarming the man and ending the small fight with a quick stab into the heart.

The thug began to fall only to be spilt apart from collarbone to pelvis as the fifth thug had quickly run up behind him, trying to catch the youth off-guard with a surprise attack from his battle-axe. But when he looked to see what happened the young man was nowhere in sight. "Where…?" He began to question before he felt a presence at his back, he saw the youth out of his peripherals and began to turn to face him only for the young man to disappear again.

He felt a light knocking on his head and looked above to see the youth riding on his shoulders. "Where are you looking?" He asked. The thug was about to reach for him but in one swift motion the young man gripped the top and bottom of the man's head and… SNAP… the thug slumped and fell to his knees before falling on his chest, the youth walked off gracefully just as the body hit the ground.

The youth heard a whistling through the air and moved his head just in time as he saw the last member frantically trying to load a cross bow, the bolt locking into place as he aimed again.

He walked calmly towards the man, closing the distance as the crossbowmen launched bolt after bolt, the young man merely deflecting the projectiles with his knife.

When he was almost within arm's reach the thug fired again only for the youth to catch the bolt inches from his chest. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the spearman, finally getting up and readying himself to fight once more. The young man eyed the bolt in his hand once more before with a flick of his wrist, the bolt flew through the air, boring through the spearman's skull and imbedding itself in a tree behind him.

As the young man turned back the thug had already fallen to his knees, clasping his hand in front of him. "Please! Let me live!"

The youth clasped a hand on the side of the man's face, almost endearingly, and the thug looked up with hope as the young man smiled at him. SNAP. The thug's head now faced behind him as the body tumbled backwards, limp and lifeless.

The young man surveyed the few survivors, the first and second thugs breathing, but only just. The young man picked up the maul from before, walking over to where it's owner now resided. He stopped briefly before raising it up and returning the weapon to its owner, the two now unable to ever be separated. He then walked over to the second man and slit his knife across the throat, ending the man's misery.

All that was left was the boss, who had not moved, still in shock on his knees, oblivious to everything around him. He slowly reached for his appendage before the young man walked over, moving the hand just inches from its owner's reach.

"I told you…" The youth started. "You weren't getting that hand back."

"Yes, yes you did…" Heroth said weakly as he looked up slightly into the young man's face looking deep into the dark rims of the goggles. "Who are you…?" He asked almost as a last request.

"Well… you could say…" The young man started drawing his knife up with his right hand and preparing to take off the goggles with his left hand. "That I am… the last of a kind." He finished as he pulled off the goggles completely revealing his silvery eyes.

The silver eyed youth plunged his blade into the Heroth's heart and waited as the last of Heroth's life slowly seeped out of him. He put back on the goggles and hood and wipedoff the blood stained blade on the man's shirt. He looked the body over and found a small pouch of beras retrieving them for himself before standing up and dusting himself off.

He then gazed around at the carnage surrounding him. "Gods damned highway men…" He thought before looking to the woman who was still huddled behind the cart and attempting to shrink herself out of sheer fear. He walked over to woman and dropped the few beras he'd found on Heroth's person in front of her.

"Here…" He deadpanned. "Buy yourself a new cart, for your troubles." He then started to walk off.

"Wait!" She called after him. "Can I come with you?" She pleaded.

"No." The youth replied in a monotone voice, he wanted to leave fast, with all the fresh bodies lying around, yoma were sure to appear soon. He knew it was likely one would find the village a while back, probably impersonate someone and slaughter them all.

It wasn't really his business though, they could always hire a warrior to come and save them, and it's not like it was his problem if they lived or died, right? Just more unfortunate casualties in the game of life, right?

"Ah… Gods damn it all…" And so he started back to the village for the impending attack due to his damn conscience.

Hopefully all would go smoothly, kill any invading yoma for the next few days, make sure the village was safe, and be on his way without being found out, hopefully all would go smoothly.

Unfortunately for him it wouldn't, and thus the wheels of fate were set in motion.

So that's the beginning of the story what will happen next? Tune in next time viewers, if you exist. I plan on doing some backstory within the next couple of chapters that will tie in some of the characters from the main story. If I get enough reviews to keep going, then I will if not, well… I might do it anyways, and don't worry the chapters will be getting longer as the story progresses and I have some more elements to write with. Hope you all enjoyed reading! Please review!