Roxanne

''"Die, Cassandra!" ''- Awakened Roxanne

Roxanne was Claymore No. 1 of her generation and one of the eight most powerful No. 1 Claymores of all time. During her lifetime, she was known as "Roxanne of Love and Hate" (愛憎のロクサーヌ, Aizō no Rokusānu) and was apparently troublesome to the Organization.

She is one of the three Claymores revived by Dae and the Organization in order to stop the uprising of the current warriors. Among the three, she appears to be the only one who can remember her own name.

Etymology
"Roxanne" is a transliteration of the Japanese "Rokusānu" (ロクサーヌ).

"Roxanne" is a French feminine proper name, from the Latin Roxane, from the Greek Rhoxane, and of Persian origin, associated with the Avestan word raoxšna meaning "shining, bright."

Claymore
Roxanne has pale, wavy hair pulled tight into two pigtails with straight bangs swept to the left. She has a very feminine look with prominent lashes and a notable beauty mark below her right eye. Roxanne seems to have red dark lipstick on her lips. She has silver eyes and wears the standard warrior uniform.

Awakened Being
Roxanne's awakened form is very tall, robotic, and slender, almost frail. She is fairly humanoid with metallic, overlapping plate-like structures, similar to plate armor. This form also possesses thin, segmented arms and three pairs of wing-like appendages, all of which are adorned with rows of feather-like blades.

Personality
Roxanne appears to be a scheming, manipulative claymore who is easily mesmerized by other, usually higher-ranked, warriors' techniques, at times seemingly to the point of obsession. She would try to befriend a warrior she admired and then take advantage of that friendship so that she could fully emulate her chosen warrior's skills. This was especially true of Roxanne's almost infatuated reaction when she first heard of and later met Cassandra, the No. 1 warrior before her. She was extremely eager to see Cassandra's technique and went to great lengths to be able to secretly watch how she fought. Another example of her dedication to imitating other warriors was when she intentionally injured her right eye to better emulate Neideen's fighting style.

However, as she grew stronger, she would come to hate both the copied fighting styles and their inventors, deeming them as being "ugly". Coincidentally, each of her "friends" would mysteriously die soon after their techniques were mastered by Roxanne, but Roxanne never showed any signs of sadness; it is implied that she was directly involved in each of their deaths, as evidenced by the timings, her displaying a lack of sadness for any of them, and the nature of Cassandra's demise. Her reputation and volatile feelings towards her peers seem to be the reasons why she was nicknamed "Roxanne of Love and Hate."

Roxanne displays some sadistic and sociopathic tendencies, similar to Ophelia. While on an awakened being hunt, she simply watched as the being tortured and eventually killed one of her teammates, who happened to be Claymore No. 35, a warrior close to Cassandra. After discovering the circumstances surrounding her friend's death and the fact that the awakened being was a weak one, Cassandra, in her grief, attacked an amused Roxanne, who killed her with a twisted grin on her face. After Cassandra's revival, Roxanne openly ridicules Cassandra for her unchanged fighting style and her awakened form's configuration. She continues laughing hysterically even after she is dismembered by the abyssal one.

Claymore
Roxanne is a very capable warrior and is shown to be skilled enough to emerge victorious seemingly effortlessly against twins utilizing Soul Link, although it must be noted that the two are just trainees.

Roxanne is exceptionally gifted in yoki synchronization, allowing her to copy and master other warriors' techniques with ease. Among the techniques and fighting styles she copied were the "Blade of Evil" of former Claymore No. 31, Uranus, the yoki-sensing-dependent style of former Claymore No. 9, Neideen, and the "beautiful" sword technique of former Claymore No. 5, Elizabeth. It is unknown if Roxanne has copied other techniques and how much time it required for her to completely copy a technique and sometimes master it.

Roxanne also has the ability to completely erase her presence to a specific target.

Abyssal One
As an abyssal one, Roxanne has been shown to possess a tremendous amount of yoki that is enough to make claymore trainees shake in fear.

Roxanne's long appendages are capable of moving at incredible speed, the small blades attached to the limbs cutting through solid earth with ease. The digits at the end of each appendage also appear to be particuarly sharp as they are shown piecing the fallen body of a warrior with as much ease as a sword. Despite the speed of her lashing attack it has been shown that Cassandra is capable of evading such an attack. The small blades can be fired as high-speed projectiles. Roxanne can simultaneously fire blades from several arms at once, covering a greater area and making evasion very difficult. She is, however, unable to instantaneously regenerate the blades.

Life as a Claymore
Roxanne was initially Claymore No. 35 of her generation. She had a knack for openly expressing adoration for and befriending higher-ranked warriors, learning their skills and mastering them, and then as her power grew, would grow to hate them.

One of the techniques Roxanne copied was that of Claymore No. 31, Uranus. Her sword technique, dubbed "Blade of Evil" by other warriors, utilized the sword's hilt and cross-guard to compensate for a lack of speed. Another was that of Claymore No. 9, Neideen. Her fighting style was dependent on yoki sensing in order to compensate for a lack of depth perception. Yet another was the beautiful sword technique of Claymore No. 5, Elizabeth, the leader of the first awakened being hunt Roxanne had ever participated in.

Curiously, the warriors from whom Roxanne copied from would usually die during an awakened being hunt soon after Roxanne had mastered their respective techniques. It is unclear whether Roxanne herself had a direct involvement in their deaths, but what was noted was that she never showed any sadness at the deaths of the warriors. By the time she was No. 11, Roxanne's reputation had spread, and she had been labeled by many as "very creepy."

In time, Roxanne became No. 5. It was then that she met Claymore No. 1 of her generation, Cassandra. She tried to befriend Cassandra, even adopting a left-handed style to express her adoration. Cassandra was flattered, as most other warriors kept their distance from her and the two managed to strike a friendship of sorts. While sparring, Roxanne noted that Cassandra's swordsmanship couldn't even match that of Elizabeth's, mystifying Roxanne just what the higher-ranked warrior was hiding. Despite seeing her as a friend, Cassandra refused to take Roxanne with her on hunting missions. Roxanne, however, managed to secretly watch Cassandra battle an awakened being. It was then that Roxanne gave Cassandra the nickname "Dust Eater."

Some time later, Cassandra became very close to the new Claymore No. 35 after saving the latter from an awakened being. One day, this No. 35 went on an awakened being hunt with Roxanne, who was No. 2 at the time. Roxanne allowed the awakened being to capture and torment the young warrior. The remaining members returned from the "failed" hunt without a single injury.

Knowing that Cassandra would find out about her crime, Roxanne let on to the Organization that the No. 1 was plotting a rebellion. Many warriors, including Roxanne, gathered at Staff in order to subdue her. When Cassandra used her Dust Eater technique in an attempt to kill Roxanne in retaliation, Roxanne merely laughed and stopped her with the Blade of Evil, slamming the hilt of her sword into Cassandra's head. She then participated in cutting Cassandra to pieces with the other warriors present.

After Resurrection
Roxanne is among the three claymores revived by Dae, the other two being Hysteria and Cassandra, whom she killed before. Her aim is to stop the rampage of the current warriors against the Organization.

After injuring or possibly killing most of the warriors, she engages in combat with the unnamed twins being trained as the future's Alicia and Beth. Roxanne quickly dispatches the two, cutting one of the sibling's arms and one of the other's legs. She then allows the twins to reattach their limbs, intent on fighting them again later. Meanwhile, she watches Cassandra's progress against Audrey, Rachel, and Nina, noting how Cassandra "hasn't changed at all," and begins to reminisce.

After watching Cassandra defeat the three single-digit warriors, she is shocked to see Cassandra miss Audrey when delivering the final blow. However, she is quick to discern to something fishy was going on. She senses that it is coming from the Organization's headquarters, where Raftela is using Sensory Control on Cassandra to alter the course of the latter's attacks and making them miss Audrey.

Eventually, the twins that Roxanne defeated before recover enough to try and continue fighting. Roxanne expresses disappoinement in seeing that they have not fully healed even after she has so "generously" waited for them. She berates them for going all out and not being wise in conserving yoki, and that it was for this reason that she hated having children as opponents. Bored with their weakness, she moves in for the finishing blows, appearing to pierce both of the siblings through their heads. However, she soon realizes that the technique affecting Cassandra that she had sensed and analyzed earlier was now, in fact, affecting her. Her attacks had caused only superficial wounds on the siblings' faces.

The twins come at Roxanne together, and the Sensory Control continues to affect her movements and vision. Annoyed, she soon realizes that the reason for this is because Cassandra had stopped attacking Audrey, allowing Raftela to redirect her focus. It soon becomes apparent that Cassandra is remembering her "final moments," and Roxanne seems to be overjoyed at witnessing the event.

After seeing Cassandra's awakened form, Roxanne erupts into maniacal laughter, noting how even in this form, Cassandra was still a "Dust Eater." Her laughter is cut short when one of the headed tentacles attacks, easily ripping off her left arm, left side of hair and part of her torso, and is surprised that the Dust Eater is now eating her. After Cassandra devours Roxanne's arm, the former comments that it tastes "like shit." Roxanne screams in rage and engages Cassandra in battle.

After a short time, her dismembered body is flung close to Miria, who has just finished her battle with Hysteria. Cassandra's human-looking portion approaches Roxanne and licks her, reiterating that she really does taste like shit, to which Roxanne retorts that she's one to speak of things like that when she's drooling all over her. Shortly afterwards, she awakens as well, though it doesn't appear to be a voluntary awakening.

After Awakening
After awakening, Roxanne tried to eat one of the surviving warriors but the warrior is saved by twin trainees. She attacks the twin carrying the warrior to safety, only for Cassandra to attack her and devour a piece of her hand. Cassandra declares that all the warriors present were hers to eat, and that a No. 2 like Roxanne should just eat shit. Roxanne spits back that she became No. 1 after Cassandra was chopped up miserably, to which Cassandra replies that she tasted worse than shit now, and that shit like her should only eat shit until she became shit herself. The two abyssal ones, then, engage in combat. Roxanne lashes out at Cassandra, but the latter manages to avoid all of her attacks while using the Dust Eater, all the while saying that compared to her, Roxanne was just a No. 2 that was worse than shit.

The two abyssal ones appear evenly matched until Roxanne begins firing the small blades attached to her appendages. Cassandra manages to evade those from a single arm though the blades puncture and cut off some of her tentacles. When Roxanne releases the blades from several arms simultaneously, however, Cassandra suffers far greater damage, thus allowing Roxanne to step on the human-sized portion of her awakened body and mock her. Later on, it is shown that Cassandra had recovered quickly from the damage and was taunting Roxanne that since the latter couldn't regenerate her blades instantaneously, she wouldn't dare use all the remaining blades at once. Roxanne counters that she was merely playing around up to that moment. Roxanne unleashes an attack just as Miria flees the battlefield, having successfully lured Hysteria in it.

Roxanne gloats after her attack, but is surprised to sense Cassandra, whom she attacks with her last armful of blades. It is revealed that she hesitated to use all of her remaining blades, and thus, released blades from only two arms. Two of Cassandra's tentacles impale her through the chest. Cassandra says Roxanne might have won had she used all three arms and goes on to say that indecisiveness at a critical moment was what separated a No. 2 from a No. 1. Roxanne tells Cassandra to "go ahead and eat shit for the rest of [her] life" and is devoured shortly thereafter.

Cassandra
Roxanne knew Cassandra as she was a warrior of the same era. She was the one who landed the finishing blow on the latter.

Roxanne befriended Cassandra and was also the one who gave the latter the nickname "Dust Eater" after secretly watching the her fight an awakened being. Despite being an object of her obsession, Roxanne never learned Cassandra's technique, feeling that it was the ugliest, saddest technique a No. 1 ever had, and something she didn't need.

It was eventually revealed that Roxanne allowed an awakened being to torture and kill Cassandra's friend. She showed absolutely no remorse and even seemed pleased with herself, laughing at and then killing Cassandra when the No. 1 tried to avenge her friend's death. Given Roxanne's willing disposition and insane eagerness at killing Cassandra while having the rest of the warriors to back her up, it can be speculated that Roxanne deliberately orchestrated this macabre chain of events in order to overthrow Cassandra and usurp the top position. This explanation can be plausible since Roxanne, true to her nickname, ended up hating and mocking Cassandra after secretly witnessing the latter's technique, and the Organization later promoted her to the No. 1 after at an uncertain time after the latter's death.

Uranus
Roxanne met Uranus during her first awakened being hunt. Uranus had a lot of experience with awakened beings, as she was assigned in an area with a lot of them. To survive, she created her trademark sword technique. Roxanne saw the technique for the first time then, and was utterly impressed despite the skill being looked down upon by other warriors. They became friends shortly after that hunt due to the fact that their districts were near each other. Roxanne began to copy Uranus's sword style. Later, however, as Roxanne's skills began to surpass Uranus's, she began to hate Uranus as well as the sword technique she had mastered. Uranus died soon afterwards during an awakened being hunt, just as Roxanne got promoted to No. 24. Roxanne showed no sadness at her former friend's death.

Neideen
Neideen became the leader of an awakened being hunting party that included Roxanne. During the hunt, Roxanne seemingly permanently lost her right eye. Neideen, though initially suspicious, grew to like Roxanne, who admired her and even began to copy her fighting style. The two, then, formed a partnership that even the Organization acknowledged. The pair went on numerous hunts together. As Roxanne's abilities began to approach Neideen's, the latter died during a hunt for a single, low-ranking awakened being. The other warriors were shocked that a single digit would die from such an easy battle. They were more perplexed, however, when Roxanne's right eye returned to normal the instant Neideen died.

Elizabeth
Elizabeth was the leader of Roxanne's first awakened being hunting party. She died shortly after Roxanne had stolen her beautiful sword technique. Given the pattern of Roxanne's history, it may be possible that the two also became quite close while Roxanne copied her skills. Later on, Roxanne would assume her rank of No. 5.