"We still didn't manage to find anything…"
Seth sighed as leaned against Clare's shoulder feigning exhaustion.
"Could you please not lean on me?" She shifted slightly making him fall face flat on the ground.
"Aaah, come on! Don't do me like that. We've been walking for like… 2 hours doing nothing," he whined childishly.
Clare only gave him a glance before diverting her eyes elsewhere.
"Hey! Don't turn away from me like I'm embarrassing!" Seth jumped up.
"I've no idea what you're talking about," Clare stated calmly.
After the two made rounds in the area Seth scouted earlier and still found no signs of yoma, they continued their search throughout the entire village and found nothing.
"Hey," Seth began. "Are you sure a yoma is even in this village? It might've already eaten and left."
A reasonable question really.
If, from what Clare told him, plus the memories he got from the yomas he ate, their ability to disguise as regular humans is enough to blend in with the crowd is top tier and potentially equal to his own.
And if they can infiltrate and pose as family members, they could've possibly gotten tipped off about the claymore getting hired and ran away.
Seth was certain that a yoma wasn't that naive to stick around longer.
Then again… they do kinda think even silver-eyed witches are no different from the regular humans they slaughtered. I wouldn't put it past them to underestimate them.
He shook his head.
"Still… It's quite weird. Didn't you factor in whether the target might've relocated by the time you got here?"
Clare didn't answer.
"The Organization confirmed the presence of a yoma in this village," she said after a moment. "Their information is reliable."
Seth tilted his head.
"Yeah, am not saying they aren't. What am asking is whether they know it's still gonna be there when the claymore arrives?"
Clare stopped walking.
The question seemed to hang in the air for a second.
"They are not wrong," she said.
Seth blinked.
"Not once?"
"The Organization verifies reports before dispatching a Claymore."
"Sure, but mistakes happen," Seth said, shrugging. "People might misreport things. Bodies can get moved. Monsters may leave. Stuff like that."
Clare didn't reply.
Seth looked at her.
"…Wait."
He leaned slightly, trying to get a read on her face.
"You've never even considered that, do you?"
Silence.
"Clare?"
She still didn't answer.
Now he was genuinely confused.
"Hold on," Seth said, scratching his head. "You're telling me you've never questioned them before? Not even once?"
Her voice came out colder this time.
"My duty is to follow the Organization's orders."
"Again, not what I asked."
"They sent me here because there is a yoma here."
"Okay, but—"
"That is enough."
Seth blinked again.
Then frowned.
"Organization this, organization that. Do you not have independent thoughts or something?"
Clare's silver eyes snapped toward him.
Her eyes were sharp. Cold even.
For the first time since he'd met her, there was actual irritation in them.
"If you wish to leave," she said flatly, "then do so."
Seth raised both hands.
"Whoa, whoa, hold on—"
"I will continue following the orders of the Organization."
Her tone made it very clear that she was not gonna entertain this conversation.
They stood there for a few seconds, studying each other in silence.
Seth slowly lowered his hands.
"…Fine then. Have it your way," he muttered.
Well.
That escalated fast.
He rubbed the back of his neck as they started walking again.
But now his mind was somewhere else.
The Organization.
Clare talked about them like they were all knowing.
What made them so certain?
Were their success rates so high that a second opinion was unnecessary? Unlikely.
Seth was simply not believing such things were possible.
Now that Seth really thought about it… he knew next to nothing about this so-called Organization.
Not even a proper name.
Just "the Organization."
It sounded less like a real group and more like something people said because they didn't know what else to call it.
His thoughts were spinning.
What do I actually know about them so far?
They create and send silver-eyed witches to villages when yoma show up.
They collect payment.
And… that was about it.
Not much he not gonna lie.
It was strange when he thought about it.
In the yoma memories he absorbed, villagers always talked about them like they were some distant authority—something mysterious but dependable.
If a yoma appeared, you reported it.
Then eventually a Claymore showed up.
Like clockwork.
But nobody ever said where they came from.
Nobody even seemed to question it.
It was just accepted.
Something smells fishy…
Seth rubbed his chin in thought.
Even weirder were the yoma themselves.
Because the more he cycled through the memories he absorbed, the more he realized something strange.
Those memories didn't go back very far.
At first he assumed it was because he hadn't eaten any good ones.
But now he wasn't so sure.
The memories always started the same way.
A human—> A moment of weakness—>Pain—>Then something taking root inside them.
After that… the human slowly faded, and the yoma took over.
But anything before that moment?
Seth don't got a clue.
Neither origin nor birthplace.
No ancient race of monsters lurking somewhere.
Just a beginning inside a human body.
Seth frowned slightly.
So where the hell do they actually come from?
Did they reproduce?
Were they created?
Did something turn humans into them?
Or were they parasites that infected people?
It was like their existence simply started the moment they began their disguise.
And that bothered him.
His gaze shifted again toward Clare.
Another thought crept into his mind.
And the Organization…
Seth somehow knew they had some connections to the yoma.
And it's not through the experiments they carried out on the claymores.
How do they verify reports before sending Claymores or if they do at all.
Seth exhaled slowly.
There was just too much he didn't know.
And Seth really didn't like that.
His skepticism simply wouldn't allow it.
Too many missing pieces and as a modern person, he definitely wanted to finish the puzzle.
Curious, curious, curious…
His eyes narrowed a little.
Guess I'll just have to find out the usual way.
Find one of those organization people and consume their ass.
If anyone had answers, it would most definitely be them.
Right as he was thinking that, he noticed Clare suddenly turning and walking toward the entrance of the village.
"Where are you going?" Seth asked.
"To wait," she replied.
"Out here?" he asked.
"That is where I will spend the night."
Seth blinked.
"Why out here?"
"The yoma will eventually reveal itself."
"Okay… but why not wait inside? Like… an inn or something?"
Clare stopped walking.
Then she slowly looked at him.
"I am a silver-eyed witch."
Seth stared at her for a second.
Then it clicked.
"Oh."
Right.
People were terrified of Claymores.
Sure, they hired them when a yoma showed up… but that didn't mean they wanted one sleeping in the room next door.
"Yeah, that makes sense."
They kept walking until they reached a quiet spot just outside the village. A fallen log sat near the roadside.
Without saying anything, she stabbed her sword into the ground and sat down leaning on it.
Like she could stay that way all night if she had to.
Seth stared at her for a second.
Then shrugged and sat on the log too.
"Well," he muttered, stretching his legs out, "guess we're camping."
For a while, neither of them said anything.
Seth leaned back slightly, staring at the forest before them.
It didn't take long for boredom to creep in.
His eyes shifted.
The world immediately changed.
Heat signatures popped up everywhere.
Warm figures walking inside houses. Animals in barns. Small glowing shapes moving around the village streets.
Thermal vision.
Seth tilted his head slightly, watching them move.
"Huh… that's still cool."
Then he blinked again.
The world shifted.
This time things looked different.
The viral vision.
Although he complained about walking around earlier, it wasn't without its benefits.
He had managed to learn more about his two vision abilities—specifically, his viral vision.
Unlike the game where it could only detect beings who were infected with Blacklight virus, his detects biological anomalies.
Or at least he thinks so.
When he uses viral vision on Clare, he saw some unique additions that were likely from yoma, inside her.
Her whole insides were packed with so much stuff that humans don't have.
Seth quietly switched back and forth a few times.
Thermal.
Viral.
Thermal.
Viral.
People moving around, little heat blobs in thermal, weird viral patterns… it was oddly satisfying.
Then something in the woods caught his eye.
Its heat signature and outline showed it was human-shaped, but its insides were not human-like in the least.
He nudged Clare. "Hey."
She didn't even look up. "Yes?"
"You remember that thing I said I might be able to use to spot a yoma?"
Clare finally opened her eyes. "Yes?"
"Yeah… I'm picking up something over in that forest. Feels out of place."
Clare finally stood, lifting her sword. "Show me."
Seth toggled his visions a couple more times—thermal, viral—trying to get a better read.
Heat signature was faint, almost normal human, but the viral stuff? Definitely off. Yoma-level off.
"Okay… that's not a normal person," he muttered.
Clare's eyes sharpened as she drew her blade.
"Then we should confirm what it is."
Chapter 9 end.
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I feel like this is slow asf and want to speed it up but don't like fast paced stuff. I'm also feeling unmotivated to even continue writing this. I'm here doing research, as writing and have to constantly delete shit it's frustrating so fuck it. I don't remember shit from the past chapters so you might see stuff don't add up or repeating. In case you didn't read the heads up, shit won't start picking up until other claymores get introduced.