Rafaela

Rafaela was Claymore #2 in Luciela's time and Claymore #5 in Clare's time. She is first seen as Irene's pursuer. Her power is considered equal to that of her elder sister, former Number 1 ; Luciela. She is one of the longest lived Claymores, disregarding Awakened Beings.

Appearance
Rafaela has short, spiky hair with only one remaining silver eye. Her left eye is nothing but a trademark jagged scar and she wears the standard Claymore uniform.

As a combined Awakened Being Rafaela resembles the Clare and Teresa statue. A large halo-like structure forms from the mouths of the two faces.

Luciela's Time
Rafaela and Luciela's past is unknown but they were brought to the Organization as the Organization's first experiment using a soul link to control an Awakened Being. The experiment fails causing her elder sister, Luciela, to lose control and fully awaken. Rafaela lost an eye and the Organization lost over half their warriors when Luciela went on the rampage. She was blamed for the experiment backfiring, because of her 'weak heart'. Rafaela intentionally did not heal her eye. In fact, she suppresses her Yoki completely in the vain hope that she can somehow bring Luciela back.

Rubel informed her that, in order to neutralize the risk of her Awakening herself, she had stripped of her number and symbol. As she said, it was as though she had died and she was ordered to keep a low profile like a dead person.

She was allowed to wander around the towns surrounding the Organization in disguise, where she heard about that the Organization took some twins from a family called the Zemas. If those twins were Alicia and Beth stays unclear. She also ran into Teresa as a trainee. Rafaella was amazed to learn that Teresa could survive through a wilderness of Yoma and wild creatures to come to that area.

Clare's Time
On a stormy night, Rubel finds her taking shelter in a small cave. There, he informed her that Teresa is dead, along with Irene, Sophia and Noel, and Priscilla has awakened. He mentions that Priscilla's Awakening will break the deadlock between the three Abyssal Ones and the one most likely to be wiped out is Luciela. Thus, since they are so short-handed, the Organization invited Rafaela back in exchange for information regarding her elder sister.

Rafaela accepted the offer and Rubel correctly guesses the reason: she feels there is a last thing she has to do. She wishes to find her sister, who she believes she failed, and, instead of a futile attempt to bring her back to her human form, kill her.

She is seen briefly as Clare's tracker when Galatea defaulted on this task. She brings Rubel with her, who warns Clare not to fight her.

After Luciela's battle with Isley, Rafaela found her sister, weakened from the battle and unable to maintain her Awakened form. She runs to her sister, hugging her and apologising for her weakness. Luciela mistakes this for an apology for her defeat and suggests that Rafaela Awakens so she can beat back Isley. In answer to this, Rafaela releases her Yoki to give her the strength to kill her sister by breaking her back.

After Seven Year Time-Skip


Rafaela is not mentioned again until Audrey (#3) told Clare that she heard Rafaela died. If she were in fact alive her aura would be untraceable by now, same as Galatea.

She appears again however when Riful reveals to the recently captured Renee that she had found Rafaela and Luciela soon after Luciela died. It turned out that, when she killed Luciela to fulfill her duty as a soul link and a sister, Rafaela unconsciously injected all her life force into Luciela's dead body. This deed killed Rafaela but fulfilled her loyalty to Luciela. After Rafaela merged with Luciela's body, both of them entered a vegetative state. Riful plans to use Renee's Yoki Manipulation to make them awaken.

After Renee manages to escape, Clare somehow makes it into Rafaela's mind. Rafaela's form is structured on Clare's memories and is slowly forming as her mind Awakens. Rafaela and Clare do battle and, in the end, Clare uses the Quicksword to defeat her. Rafaela truly dies but leaves Clare with all her memories.

As a Combined Awakened Being
Soon after the combined being of Rafaela and Luciela awakens. A large halo-lke structure appears and fires many large rods off into the surrounding areas, piercing through Riful and Dauf and one impaling Beth in the stomach. The rods start to change and the take the form of cat-like ceatures, resembling Luciela's awakened form. The combined awakened being's yoma powers easily suppresses that of the Abysal Ones such as Isley.

They are seen attacking Clare, Helen and Deneve shortly after. The creatures are seen losing limbs and one even gets decapitated but they continue to fight on. They are seen firing rods much like Dauf, which allow them to regenerate when they impale a living creature, making them parasites. According to Clare the creatures will only cease to function when they expend all their energy fulfulling their destructive nature. The best way to stop them is slice them into as many pieces as possible to prevent them from moving, although they can still fire projectiles. After all the creatures have been defeated she prepares to release more, much to the annoyance of the survivors.

Personality
Rafaela is a seemingly emotionless and quiet Claymore. She does not tell anyone of her past when asked, seemingly too ashamed of it. She is guilt-ridden about her sister and is able to focus on tasks like suppressing her Yoki completely. She has enough mental strength to kill her sister when she has Awakened, though she is upset by it.

Abilities
Total Yoki Suppression: Since Rafaela has been out of action for so many years, her Yoki has been sealed away so much that she radiates no aura. This is best for covert operations like finding Clare since no Claymores can detect her coming.

Great Fighting Prowess: She was a former Number 2 so it stands to reason that she is very powerful. She demonstrates this when Clare enters her mind. She is able to meet Clare's Windcutter and beat it.

According to Rubel, Rafaela is (at least) as powerful as her sister, rank 1 Luciela. So, Rubel is saying that Rafaela is actually a rank 1, just like Luciela was. We see this in her "demeanor" towards Irene and Luciela. As Rubel or the Organization wouldn't have Rafaela go kill rank 2 Irene of the Quick Sword and the Abyssal One Luciela if she couldn't do so.

Source: chapter 64 page ? (need to get page #, it should be around page 8 though)

Also, Rubel implicitely warned Clare and Jean not to try to resist their summons to Pieta, as Rafaela is no ordinary warrior, Rafaela is special, like having the power (at least) equal to rank 1 Luciela.

Source: chapter ? page ? (need to get source, though it is the end of the Witches Maw section/arc/chapters)

Regeneration: According to Rubel, Rafaela is powerful enough and able to regenerate, even her eye (which seems much more difficult to regenerate than other body parts).

(Just a side note: Rafaela chooses not to regenerate her eye, as it is a reminder of her failure to save (prevent) her sister, Luciela, from Awakening into the third Abyssal One, and her vow to rectify this mistake, arguably either by killing Luciela or even trying to "de-awaken" Abyssal One Luciela back into a Claymore due to the strange scene between the two of them, after Rafaela crushed Luciela to death, resulting in Rafaela's body becoming half-merged with dead Luciela's corpse body)

Source: chapter 64 page 8. Rubel to Rafaela: "What's with that left eye? Even if you're an offensive type, you should be able to regenerate it."

Luciela
Rafaela was very close to her older sister and was distraught when she Awakened. She blamed herself for this disaster and endeavoured to suppress her Yoki to try and bring her back. Her love was so great that she subconsciously fed her own life-force into her when she died, resulting the merging.

Clare
She met with Clare only briefly after Clare's battle with Riful. They met again when Clare managed to enter her awakening consciousness after she merged with Luciela. She acted affronted, saying that Clare intruded. However, when Clare struck her dead, she had a smile on her face and she gave away all her memories to help her find 'what she needed to know'.

Etymology
Rafaela is the feminine form of Raphael, meaning 'healing God'. This is perhaps a reference to her purposefully not healing her eye or her eliminating one of the Abyssal Ones. It is also the name of an archangel, a reference to her high number.

Behind the Scenes

 * In the anime, her Japanese voice actor is Satsuki Yukino and her English voice actor is Kate Oxley.
 * None of Rafaela's back story is included in the anime, where she is a very minor character.

Appearances

 * Claymore Manga Chapter 38
 * Claymore Manga Chapter 50
 * Claymore Manga Chapter 64
 * Claymore Manga Chapter 82
 * Claymore Manga Chapter 91
 * Claymore Manga Chapter 92
 * Claymore Anime Episode 14
 * Claymore Anime Episode 18