Riful

Riful is Claymore No. 1 of the first female generation.

The youngest Claymore to awaken, she becomes an Abyssal One: "Riful of the West" also known as "Empress Riful". She lives in the western region of Lautrec, with her consort, Dauf. She is depicted as all-powerful, though later overpowered by Priscilla.

Etymology
"Riful" is derived from the Japanese transliteraton "Rifuru" (リフル, pronounced "ri-fur-et") meaning "Riffle," thought to correspond with her awakened form.

"Riffle" is also an old term for "rifle," deriving from Old French "rifler" (to plunder, pillage). Related to Middle English "rafte" (see Raftela).

Appearance
In her human form, Riful appears as a whimsical and cheerful young girl with long brown hair, but in reality is completely amoral, with no regard for any who come between her and her goals.

In her awakened form, Riful retains a feminine humanoid form, but one composed of fleshy strips. Her lower body is an immense mass of such strips, which are incredibly resilient and capable of lashing out at high speeds to ensnare or impale her opponents. The humanoid portion of Riful's form is a deception, as her enemies will tend to attack that area in the assumption that her vital organs are located there. In actuality, that portion contains no vital areas whatsoever.

Personality
Riful almost always appears cheerful and child-like, often acting polite even when threatening someone with a tortuous death. From time to time, however, Riful may also be prone to anger and frustration, especially when made to look foolish in front of others. Despite being tough on him, Riful also has a softer side to her personality when it comes to Dauf.

Abilities
Riful's body is made up of multiple dark "strips of metal," which she could sprout from just about any part of her body. Durable enough for protection, sharp enough as weapons, these ribbon-like strips allow her to lash out or ensnare enemies at a relatively long range and from any direction she chooses, making this ability very versatile in use. In spite of her massive size, Riful is also depicted as possessing incredible speed.

First Encounter With Clare
In Hanel, a dying Raquel tells Clare about the Awakened Being Hunting Party captured by their quarry. In an abandoned castle on Mount Zakol, Dauf tortures Jean and Katea. When Katea awakens and fails Dauf's test, Riful orders her destroyed.

Riful is trying to create Awakened Being out of captured Claymores without success. Katea is her 32th failure.

Clare enters the "Witch's Maw" to rescue the party.

Riful decides to let Dauf deal with the low-yoki intruder. Clare is captured by Dauf, but Galatea appears. Galatea tries leaving with Clare, but Dauf caves-in the entrance. Galatea then orders Clare to get Jean, while Galatea holds off Dauf.

In the ensuing battle, Dauf is overwhelmed by the three Claymores, causing Riful to end the fight. She decided she wanted to recruit the three to her army, but left them time in order to get stronger before turning them into her awakened allies. Riful also suggested that the only way to beat Isley was for the three to join her.

She later appeared before Isley after Luciela's defeat, warning him to not expand into her territory. It was then she realised that there was something amiss regarding the story of Isley defeating Priscilla. She noted that Priscilla was much stronger than either Isley or herself. This was one of the few times where she showed real anger.

After Seven Years
Riful has now changed her focus to acquiring of Claymores skilled at sensing and manipulating Yoki. She attempted to recruit Audrey and Rachel, but Clare, Miria, Helen and Deneve intervene. She seemed pleased to see Clare was still alive and even asked how Jean and Galatea were. She seems slightly upset to hear of the death of Jean.

She later runs into Renee and captures her. She takes her to her base and has Dauf tear off some of her limbs. Riful tells her she will let her re-attach her limbs and let her go if she cooperates. She then shows Renee the merged bodies of Rafaela and Luciela and tells Renee all she wants is for her to use her Yoki manipulation to make them awaken. Renee asks Riful what she will do if the creature is stronger than her, to which Riful cheerily replies she will just kill it.

She starts to become impatient when Renee takes so long regenerating her legs and tries to hurry her along. She is interrupted by Dauf awakening in the castle to fight Clare. She leaves to scold him for doing so, warning Renee not to try and escape. Riful begins to fight with Clare but sense Renee's Yoki disappearing. She orders Dauf to catch her but when he fails she goes after Renee herself. Soon after, Rafaela and Luciela begin to awaken causing a large explosion of intense Yoki. Riful briefly mentions Renee having no chance of survival, implying that she had killed her.

She reverts to her human form and seems to be shocked about how the Awakened Beings power kept increasing. She says that at the moment her chances of beating it are at 50-50, but will lessen as time goes on. Dauf convinces her not to fight it and she decides that they should retreat. They are then surrounded by Abyss Feeders, who manage to rip off Riful's left arm. She uses her hair to impale them in their heads but one manages to bite off the right side of her head. Riful comments on how they are the first to do such damage to her and that she will make them regret having very durable bodies. She is interrupted by the arrival of Alicia and Beth, who tell her she is the next target they are to eliminate.

Encounter with Alicia-Beth and Priscilla
Riful awakens and begins to battle the awakened Alicia but is unable to keep up with her. Alicia's arms were easily able to slice trough Riful's ribbon-like body and Riful had to order Dauf to attack Beth, who she knew was performing "Soul Link" with Alicia, to try and give her an advantage. This works by slowing her down but only for a short time. The battle is interrupted when the new Awakened Being fires projeciles which pierce multiple holes in Dauf. Riful reaches out to him but is also pierced by the attack.

In the confusion Riful reverts to her human form and drags the badly injured Dauf, who had also reverted to his human form, to safety. They quickly become surrounded by Abyss Feeders and one manages to bite off her arm. Riful is too exhausted and injured to regenerate her arm and while she manages to kill some she is soon overwhelmed. Alicia slices through the remaining Abyss Feeders, and of three Riful's limbs, causing her to weep in anger at being defeated by 'this fellow'. Riful seems to realise that something had happened to Beth and that "Soul Link" was failing. Despite knowing that Alicia was vulnerable and having Dauf shout at her to finish her, Riful didn't move. She sensed the yoki of the person Beth was fighting and knew immediately it was Priscilla. Alicia leaves to help Beth and Riful watches from the sidelines, calling Alicia stupid for Awakening.

The battle doesn't last long, with Priscilla killing both Alicia and Beth in quick succession. Riful is stunned, incapable of believing such a powerful creature could exist and warns Dauf to run away as fast as he can. He refuses and immediately thereafter, they are confronted by Priscilla herself. When Dauf stubbornly threatens Priscilla, she effortlessly rips his body to pieces, before punching her right hand through Riful's spine and shooting spikes within Riful's body, including her forehead. As of chapter 102, Riful is confirmed dead, since Helen and Deneve have found her severely mutilated dead body.

Clare
In their first encounter, Riful was impressed by Clare's tenacity, so much so she offered Clare the chance to become one of her allies in her struggle against Isley. As such, she allowed Clare to go free in hopes of her becoming stronger. Seven years later, the two encounter each other again with Riful exchanging pleasantries as though speaking to an old friend, though her intention was to use Clare's yoki sensing as a means to awaken the fused Luciela-Rafaela. In the end, with Clare escaping her clutches, Riful had nothing but contempt for the claymore.

Dauf
Though she finds Dauf to be an embarassment to the point where she even mocked him for his dimwittedness, Riful accepted him as her lover on the grounds that he was the only one who could 'accept her without breaking'. As such, even when her life is in danger, she would not abandon him in spite of his own insistence.

Isley and Priscilla
For much of the series, Isley served as her main rival in the power struggle for the land. It was Isley's move to conquer the South that caused Riful to respond in kind, searching for strong claymores for her own awakened being army. Ultimately, Isley came up triumphant as Riful was caught unaware by his trump card: Priscilla. In the end, it was Priscilla who ended her life, seven years after Isley's invasion.

The Destroyer
While searching for a means to fight against the Isley/Priscilla alliance, Riful stumbled upon the fused bodies of Rafaela and Luciela. During the seven years, Riful searched for a way to awaken the fused sisters, resorting to finding claymores with high proficiency in yoki perception. Ultimately, the fused sisters do awaken in the form of the Destroyer, a being with power greater than that of the Abyssal One.

Behind the Scenes

 * Riful's voice actor is Nina Mizuki and her English voice actor is Brittney Karbowski.