Clare

"Number 47 in the organization, Clare, successor of Teresa flesh and blood, bearer of Irene's right arm and the one who carries Ophelia's hopes and soul to hunt the awakened being Priscilla." -Clare

Clare is the main protagonist of the series. She is the only known Claymore to have taken in the flesh and blood of another warrior to become Claymore, rather than taking in the flesh and blood of a Yoma. Also Clare is the only Claymore to date to have volunteered to undergo the process to become one. As a consequence, she is a quarter Yoma hybrid, while the other warriors are half Yoma. Due to this, she is given rank Number 47 - the lowest. Despite this, she has shown a great amount of prowess when fighting Yoma and Awakened Being.

Etymology
Clare derives from 'claire', the French word for 'clear' and is a popular western name.

Appearance
Human: Clare as a child was thin and small. She had long, straight, light brown hair and green eyes. She bore many scars on her body from her experience with the Yoma that used her as a disguise.

Claymore: Clare's hair was originally long, however, when abushed by a Yoma during the trials, she cut a large portion to hang out a window as a diversion. It has not regrown since and is now short and pale blond, like the other warriors. Her eyes have turned silver and the scars on her body appear to have vanished. She has a wispy, frail body which disguises her supernatural strength. She lost her right arm in a fight with Ophelia, who destroyed it, and, after learning Irene's Quick Sword ability, she is given her remaining arm. Interestingly, although it is said a Yoki-suppressant return a hybrids eyes to their original color, upon taking them, Clare's eyes turned brown in the anime, not green as they were when she was a child.

Half-Awakened Form: Clare's eyes turn gold with slit pupils like a Yoma and her face and body become distorted. Her legs become hock-jointed like a horse's, making her faster, and blades grow from her right arm, with her left becoming large and claw-like. Clare's power seems to grow each time she goes over her limit, which compensates for her quarter Yoma blood as opposed to the regular half. Her Awakened right arm is most likely what Irene's right arm would have resembled upon Awakening, except that the arm itself doesn't change/Awaken at all, besides the leather arm band ripping off and the small blades stick out of it.

Personality
Even from childhood, Clare's enormous willpower is apparent when she would persistently follow Teresa despite the dangers. While with Teresa, she was initially emotionally closed-off, but she begins to open up as she spends more time with her. Her determination to defeat Priscilla made her take on Teresa's flesh and blood and become a Claymore. When she became a Claymore, she developed a cold and independent demeanor, refusing all help and wanting to master things by herself. But this was shown to be a mere cover, and as the story progresses, we see Clare retains her compassionate human heart.

She is extremely selfless and was shown to injure herself to save others. Clare has extreme loyalty for her friends and was distraught when Jean died. She also possesses a tendency to ignore advice and that causes her to run wild at times.

Abilities
Voice Change: Clare has the ability to completely change her voice to diguise herself. This ability was used only once during her search for Raki after defeating Ophelia.

Acute Yoki Sensing: Like Teresa before her, Clare has the ability to sense yoma auras to the point where she could predict her opponent's moves. This technique is particularly useful against opponents with substantial amounts of yoki, such as awakened beings.

Quicksword: By fully releasing her yoki into the sword arm to the point where it goes beserk while controlling it through sheer will, Clare is able to produce many consecutive attacks at superhuman speed. This technique was passed down by Irene through training and acquiring her right arm. The accuracy of the technique increased by using her yoki sensing in conjunction.

Windcutter: The special technique of Flora, it is a sword drawing technique similar to the Quicksword in that the result produces many consecutive attacks at superhuman speed. The move is considered somewhat slower, yet more accurate than the Quicksword. During the seven years in hiding, Clare began to train and use the Windcutter over the Quicksword since the latter requires yoki release.

Yoki Suppression: After Seven years in the North, Clare, along with the other survivors, has learnt how to completely suppress her Yoki while retaining the ability to attack and sense the Yoki of others.

Early Life
Clare's parents were killed by a Yoma that forced her to travel around with it as a disguise and a toy. The scars on her body are evidence that she was tortured while she was with the Yoma. Her suffering was so great that she closed herself emotionally and verbally. It is unknown how old she was when her family was killed or when the Yoma was killed.

Time with Teresa
When she and the Yoma were staying at a village where six other Yoma were hiding, Teresa passed by and killed all of the Yoma there. When she saw Teresa, she saw the same pain in her eyes as she had endured. Empathizing with Teresa, she attempted to embrace her before she left, despite Teresa throwing her aside. Afterwards, she was thrown out of the village since they feared her to be a Yoma.

Clare followed Teresa for many days, going without food or water. Teresa's dismissals, an attack from bandits and even falling from a cliff did not stop her. After falling from a cliff, she passed out from dehydration and Teresa reluctantly allowed her to stay until they reached the next town. She is delighted also when Teresa managed to correctly guess her name. When the bandit Teresa injured attempted revenge, she was brave enough to attack him. Once Teresa had scared him away, Clare became so distraught that she managed to speak and finally explain to Teresa about her feelings.

Teresa left her at a nearby town after buying her new clothes and finding her a family to live with. Though she originally protested at leaving her, Clare finally consented to stay. However, the fact that Teresa had slain a Yoma meant that the bandits that attacked them could attack the town. Clare fled from the bandit that tried to attack Teresa and was knocked unconscious. When she awoke, Teresa had slain all the bandits, thus marking herself for death.

Once Teresa escaped from the organization, she and Clare went into hiding. They are found by Priscilla, Irene, Noel and Sophia and Clare, though she was never involved, was a witness to the battle that ensued. She followed Teresa outside the town after she'd defeated them and witnessed Teresa's battle and death by the awakened Priscilla's hand.

Once the battle had finished and Priscilla had gone, Clare took Teresa's head and searched for a member of the organisation. When she found Rubel, she begs him to put Teresa's flesh and blood within her.

Employment as a Claymore
Clare joined the organization out of a want to avenge Teresa and, during her transformation, met Elena, befriending her and relying on her for support during her painful hours. During her training, she developed her cold and independent attitude. Even when she dislocated her arm during training, she would not let anyone help her. In the last phase of her training, she battled with an old unnamed rival and was the first to realise the presence of a Yoma. She saved the injured rival and berated her for wanting to die rather than be saved by her. Clare killed the Yoma but not without her hair being cut and she helped the rival out of the training grounds.

Once she was ready, she was given Rank Number 47, the lowest rank within the organization. Clare did her jobs given to her by Rubel and, along the way, met Raki. She was surprised when he takes an interest in her but remained cold and distant towards him, denying to even give him her name. While in his village, Clare slew the Yoma that turned out to be Zaki, Raki's brother. Just as she left, Raki finds her, thanks her for slaying the Yoma and, after another request, she finally consented to give him her name. After a while, she found Raki again while tracking a Yoma, starved and weak in the wilderness. She deposited him in a town and pays for his lodging and food.

She saved Raki from a Yoma that disguised itself as a Claymore to use him as a hostage. Clare managed to slay the Yoma despite having sustained an injury. After discovering that he'd been thrown out of his village just like she had, she allowed him to follow her as her cook.

Traveling with Raki
While traveling with Raki, Rubel gave her Elena's Black Card. She revealed to Raki the custom of sending the Black Card when the human mind's limit is reached. She meets with Elena on Mount Shire and, despite protests from Raki, killed her without shedding a tear. She buried Elena, using her claymore as a gravestone. She revealed to Raki that Elena was her only friend during the time of her transformation.

When tracking a Yoma in the holy city of Rabona, Clare was forced to hide the fact she is a Claymore by taking pills to revert her eyes back to their original colour and to suppress her aura. She meets with Father Vincent, the head of the church there, and asked if Raki would be allowed to stay if she dies. Clare was injured in the first fight with the Yoma and was unconscious for two days. When she fought the Yoma again with Galk and Sid, she pushed herself with her injuries so much that she accidentally surpassed her limit. She asked Galk to kill her but Raki protected her, saying that he would die with her. Miraculously, Clare came back to her ordinary self and is able to leave Rabona with him when she recovered.

Awakened Being Hunt
After running wild and disobeying orders, Clare was sent on an Awakened Being hunt, despite her low rank in the Organization. She entered a team consisting of Helen, Deneve and team leader Miria. Her team immediately disliked and scorned her, believing she was too weak to be accompanying them. Miria fought with Clare to determine her strength and Clare was easily defeated. However, the team soon found themselves in trouble, as the Awakened Being they were sent to hunt were was more powerful than anticipated. Miria and Clare were able to defeat the Awakened Being, but this was ultimately down to Clare delivering the most blows by removing five of it's six arms, doing more damage than even Miria herself despite the apparent power gap. The team now respected Clare more and Miria trusted her enough to tell Clare, Helen and Deneve of her distrust of the Organization. Miria warned the group to stay away from high ranked Claymores and the group departed, promising to meet up again.

Fight with Ophelia
Soon afterwards, Clare was sent on another Awakened Being hunt. This time, her partner was Ophelia, one of the Claymore Miria warned her about. Ophelia challenged both Clare and Raki to a fight. Clare refused so Ophelia cuts off her legs. Ophelia proceeded to toy with Raki, while Clare desperately attempted to reattach her legs. They were interrupted by an Awakened Being, who attacks Ophelia. Clare and Raki escape to the woods while Ophelia kills the Awakened Being fairly quickly. Clare told Raki to leave, promising to meet him again. She continues on alone, but is quickly caught by Ophelia. Ophelia slices off Clare's arm and Clare attempted to escape by falling off a cliff. Ophelia followed her and destroyed the severed arm. After losing her left hand, Clare was at Ophelia's mercy before the fight was interrupted by Irene, who injured Ophelia close to death and saved Clare.

Irene decided to train Clare in her "Quick Sword" attack. After Clare is able to perform the move enough to learn on her own, Irene cut off her right arm, giving it to Clare as a replacement for the one Ophelia destroyed.

After Clare left Irene, she came across the Awakened Ophelia. She fought with Ophelia, until Ophelia realised she'd awakened. She gave Clare a challenge, allowing her to use her new move to cut through Ophelia's long body. Clare eventually reached the end and, having 'won', was allowed to kill Ophelia.

Battle with Dauf
Clare went to the town of Hanel after killing Ophelia, disguised as a man. There she came across Raquel, a severely wounded Claymore. Raquel told Clare of how her team leader Jean and two other Claymore have been captured and tortured, begging Clare to go and save them. Clare promises to do so just as Raquel dies. She headed to the cave and easily fought off a large collection of Yoma. After killing them all, she entered the Witch's Maw and was attacked by Dauf, an Awakened Being. She fought with Dauf, while trying to get past him to save Jean. However, she could not beat Dauf. It is then that Galatea appeared. Originally sent to retrieve Clare, Galatea agreed to help after being trapped in the cave. Galatea held off Dauf while Clare went to save Jean.

When she reaches the chamber, one of Jean's companions was dead, while Jean had almost awakened. She was shocked to discover that Jean still kept her mind after her body transformed. Attempting to imitate Galatea's Yoki Manipulation, she managed to pull Jean back to her human form, though saying that she was not very good at it and probably could not do it again. Jean pledged her life to Clare before the two returned to help Galatea. Together, the three Claymore managed to defeat Dauf but could not kill him when Riful, the Abyssal one of the West, interfered. Riful rewarded Clare's efforts by telling her where Priscilla is, before leaving with Dauf. Galatea allowed Clare to continue her journey, while Clare and Jean left to continue the search for Raki.

Clare objected to Jean stubbornly following her, saying that the debt was already repaid since Jean's example of extreme willpower made her Quicksword even better. She had to abandon her search for Raki when Rafaela and Rubel managed to catch them, who inform them of the death of Claymore #7 Eva in the North. She also learned that Raki had been captured by a slave-trader and reluctantly accepts her orders to go to the North.

The Northern Campaign
Clare was one of the 24 Claymore chosen to fight in the Northern Campaign. She was put into Flora's team by Miria, along with Lily (#18), Wendy (#30) and Karla (#39). During the first battle, Flora was hesitant to let Clare fight as she believed she was too weak. However Clare saved the entire team from a possessed Karla and eventually killed the Awakened Being, along with Flora, saving Wendy and Juliana in the process. This changed Flora's perception of her power. After the first battle, Flora challenged Clare to a fight in order to determine whose attack was quicker; Flora's Windcutter attack or Clare's Quick Sword. In the end, it was determined Clare's attack is quicker, though less accurate. Flora passed the title of "Fastest Sword amongst the Claymores" onto Clare.

During the second battle, Rigardo managed to critically wound Jean, causing Clare to forget her orders to protect Flora. Due to this, Flora was cut in half by Rigardo. Enraged over the death of her friends, Clare managed to awaken parts of her body without losing her human mind. After managing to control these parts of her body, she manages to kill Rigardo, however, she ran into trouble reverting back to normal. She asked Helen to kill her at first, before the critically wounded Jean sacrificed herself to save Clare, fulfilling her vow to serve Clare for the rest of her life. This successfully allowed Clare to change back, though she was distraught at Jean's death. She is one of the seven survivors along with Miria, Helen, Deneve, Cynthia, Tabitha and Yuma. She deserted the Organization afterwards.

Seven Year Time-Skip
Clare remained in the North to fight the Awakened Beings with the other six survivors. She learned to repress her aura completely during the seven years she was there. She also learned the Windcutter move since using her Quicksword used too much Yoki to be used without being tracked down. According to Deneve, she was the one who had trained the hardest out of all the survivors. It is hinted that she also spent some time looking for clues of Raki's whereabouts.

After saving Clarice, Nina and their team from Awakened Beings, she travels to a town with Yuma and finds a slave trade prison. She finds clues of Raki being there and having escaped which gives her new hope that he is alive. She requests that she travels south and fights Miria to settle it. In the end, all of the survivors travel south.

After traveling away from the North, she, Miria, Helen and Deneve rescue the four soldiers that had ran into Riful of the West. Clare remains behind after the other three escaped. By saying that she'd 'consider' joining Riful, Clare questions her about the status of the Abyssal ones. After finding out all the information she needs, she makes her escape. After learning that Galatea and Rafaela are no longer a part of the Organization, she accompanied the other six south.

While passing Rabona, they entered the city to defeat Agatha. Clare was the first one to reveal herself and used Windcutter effectively to defeat Agatha. Afterwards, she learns from Sid that Raki passed through the city with a girl. She, Yuma and Cynthia leave Rabona together to find Raki. After leaving Rabona, she and the other two decide to investigate a town where three Claymores and apparently two members of the organization had gathered.

Clare effectively defeated the Awakened Being that was hiding there but, in revealing herself, she ran into Rubel. When the three of them spoke privately to him, she was the first to realise Rubel was a spy and that he had told her about Renee because he wanted all creatures that were close to controllable Awakened Beings destroyed. She also heard about Rafaela's 'disappearance'. After Rubel left, she persuaded to the others not to heed his hints that she should rescue Renee.

Trouble in the West
On their travels, they came across Dauf and, although they tried to hide, Yuma was captured by Dauf. Clare's Windcutter could not cut him so, to rescue Yuma, she cut off her leg. While Cynthia escaped with Yuma, Clare used the Windcutter again to distract him. All three manage to get to safety. While Cynthia heals Yuma, Clare leaves the party to follow Dauf to Riful's hideaway, saying that she felt that she has to meet Rafaela.

She effectively follows Dauf to the castle where Riful held Renee but was caught by Dauf when entering the castle. She managed to evade his attacks and escape a second time, though not without alerting Riful. It was this distraction that Clare provided that allowed Renee to swallow her suppression medicine and run away. Clare managed to hide out of Riful's senses before she suddenly feels a splitting headache and stumbles into the chamber where the merged Rafaela and Luciela are kept.

Suddenly, she finds herself walking with Jean in a forest. She halts, sensing something powerful coming. Rafaela emerges, Jean vanishes and Clare engages Rafaela in combat. The Windcutter is useless against her, as she easily meets the sword. It emerges that she has somehow entered Rafaela's consciousness while her mind was reawakening. At the risk of her mind dying, Clare utilises the Quicksword, which manages to destroy what is left of Rafaela's consciousness, effectively killing her. Then, Rafaela gives to her all her memories and emotions, so Clare will 'find what she must know'. Her Yoki rockets and all becomes unclear for a moment.

In the confusion, Clare resists being caught up in the creature's Awakening and emerges naked from its body. As she recovers herself, her clothes and claymore emerge as well. Taking these up, she observes how Rafaela and Luciela's merged form is similiar to that of the statue of Teresa and Clare. She senses the battle going on between Riful and Dauf who are against Alicia and Beth. She is surprised at Alicia and Beth's progress, then realises she shouldn't have any past memories of them. Clare wonders why Rafaela had given her memories but is interrupted by the Awakened Being, who attacks her. She dodges but is amazed when a large halo-like structure grows round its head. The Awakened Being begins to fire projectiles from it and Clare has to warn the approaching Helen and Deneve of the danger. After the attack is over the large rods start transforming into what appears to be Yoma. Clare remarks that the 'real hell is just about to begin.'

The rods morph into Awakened Beings and one proceeds to attack the three. Clare shreds the creature's arm and protects Helen from the projectiles that come from it. She is the first to realise that the creatures do not have a life of their own but are parasitic creatures, infecting others so they can keep on destroying indefinitely. Taking charge of the party, she orders them to chop up the creatures as much as they can without getting hit by the projectiles as the creatures surround them.

Having had time to prepare for the second barrage of the "yoma spikes", Clare devises a strategy that would allow the three of them to survive it with minimal effort: using her keen yoki sense, she would predict the trajectories of the rods and warn Helen and Deneve about the incoming ones. All they have to do is evade direct hits because without hosts, the parasites are mostly harmless. However, in the middle of the volley, Clare is distracted by Priscilla's presence and starts emitting massive yoki, surprising her friends. They are last seen facing Priscilla as she approaches them while the barrage is still on-going.

Recognizing Priscilla, Clare releases as much yoki as she can without Awakening and attacks her. However, Priscilla effortlessly evades her attacks and pins her to the ground, as Helen and Deneve watch helplessly because the barrage is still on-going. As Priscilla prepares to finish Clare off, Helen distracts her with a ranged attack and Clare breaks free. Although she manages to cut Priscilla's right arm off with the next attack, it regenerates immediately but Clare herself is left with two large chunks of her body missing. Despite her friends' warning, Clare orders Helen and Deneve to leave as soon as the barrage ends and even mentioning Raki isn't enough to prevent her from another suicidal attack. She then attempts to completely Awaken, like she almost did in Pieta, and even manages to cut off some of Priscilla's limbs again. But then Clare unexpectedly and inexplicably reverts back to her human form, while spraying fountains of blood from her body. Looking at her, Priscilla cryptically comments "Weren't you not supposed to be able to Awaken?"

As Clare lies bleeding on the ground in front of Priscilla, she recalls her fight against Rigardo and how she nearly Awakened, later using that experience to prepare for her fight against her arch-enemy. She attempts to Awaken three more times in vain, crying in helplessness. Deneve and Helen witness it from afar and Deneve theorizes that it was Jean's self-sacrifice that put a powerful mental block on Clare's subconscious (a "wedge", as she puts it), which prevents her from Awakening without her realizing it even exists. As Priscilla prepares to finish Clare off, Deneve and Helen distract her by throwing yoma spikes and snatch Clare in order to escape.

Deneve and Helen carry Clare towards the Destroyer, realizing it's their only hope of salvation from Priscilla. However, Priscilla, only briefly distracted by Dauf, closes in on them fast. The Destroyer strikes again but the Claymores manage to dodge, while Priscilla counterattacks and destroys what turns out to be its decoy form. The real form of the Destroyer, a shapeless dark mass of intertwined bodies, emerges and attacks them. In the confusion, Helen lets go of Clare's unconscious body and she gets hit by the Destroyer's attack. Helen and Deneve can only look in shock and disbelief, as the Destroyer lifts up Clare's body, which is missing the entire lower torso and legs. Unless saved by some extraordinary means, Clare can be safely presumed dead, since an Offensive type warrior is theoretically incapable of regenerating that much damage.

As Clare was about to be "swallowed" up by the large mass of youki, Clare gave her (what seems to be) final words to Helen and Deneve, telling them that her last responsibilty is to stop the large clump of youki from expanding. According to Deneve, Clare willingly accepted being sucked into the mass in order to not only save them, but to exact revenge on Priscilla as well.

Raki
Raki was the only one in his village not to seem scared of Clare and, though she is initially cold to him, she consents to give her name after he thanks her for killing the Yoma that ate his family. When she encountered him in the desert, she kindly takes him to a village and pays for his lodgings. After discovering that he has been thrown from his village on suspicions of being a Yoma, she takes pity on him and allows him to follow her as her cook.

Despite denying it, Clare becomes very attached to Raki as they travel together and saves him from danger a number of times. In the end, she and Raki have to part ways, when she kisses him with a vow that she will not die. She keeps searching for him even after seven years in hiding. As revealed in chapter 100, her sole motivation was to confirm his safety and bid him farewell before she Awakens and goes off to hunt Priscilla.

Teresa
When Teresa killed the Yoma that was using Clare as a disguise, she immediately became attached to her. She persistantly followed her despite Teresa's reluctance. It is only when she can speak again does she reveal that she was so attached to her because she saw the same pain in her eyes and wanted to comfort her. After that, Clare and Teresa shared a mother-daughter relationship. She and Clare traveled together for a short time. Clare loved her so much that she would gladly sleep with her. When Teresa was killed, Clare hated herself for not being able to do anything and was extremely distraught by her death. It was her death that inspired her to become a warrior, stubbornly insisting that she uses Teresa's flesh and blood instead of a normal Yoma's.

Priscilla
Clare deeply hates Priscilla, the murderer of Teresa, to the point where she identifies the sole purpose of her existence as taking revenge upon her. To kill Priscilla, she is ready to abandon her friends and her very humanity.

Rubel
Clare does not show any inclination of friendship towards her handler. She simply treats Rubel like a messenger and a supplier of information. She is angered by the tricks he plays on her and is even more so when she encounters him again after seven years.

Elena
Clare considered Elena to be as close as a friend during their transformation. They would both sleep in other's arms to comfort one another and Clare was given her Black Card.

Miria
Clare respects Miria for her strength but considers her more of an equal than a superior. She frequently shows inclination to disobey Miria when she wishes to leave the North after seven years. She does respect Miria enough to tell her of her partial awakening when asked, however.

In chapter 100, Clare states that as much as she supports Miria's goal of bringing down the Organization, her chase after Priscilla takes top priority and she is ready to abandon their common cause if it gives her a chance to fight her arch-enemy.

Helen and Deneve
She is initially hostile to them, especially Helen when taunted for her low rank. She drew her sword against Helen when she teased her about Raki but makes no move when Deneve and Helen laugh at her for being Number 47. She never truly hates them for she willingly rushed into battle to help Helen against the first Awakened Being they encounter.

Eventually, the three of them make peace and consider themselves comrades by the time of the Northern campaign. In fact, to the contrary, Helen and Devene care deeply for Clare, spiriting her away in the wake of her failed attack on Priscilla and openly crying when they believed her to have been devoured by the Destroyer in its diluval form.

Ophelia
Clare was warned about Ophelia before they met by Miria and immediately distrusted her. She perhaps resents Ophelia because she hinted at killing humans and getting away with it while Teresa was marked for death. Ophelia attacked Clare, cutting her down at the legs, in a twisted game to see if she could heal fast enough to save Raki before Ophelia cut him down as well. Strangely, Ophelia rather than destroying Clare, encourages her when it seems she was beaten. In the end, Clare does Ophelia the kindness of killing her when she awakened. Clare seems to no longer harbour ill will towards her, stating later in the manga that she carries Ophelia soul and hope (of slaying Priscilla)

Galatea
When Clare first met Galatea, she was in awe of her for her strength and her Yoki Manipulation abilities when fighting Dauf. So much so that she attempts to copy it. She fights alongside her without complaint but showed hostility when Galatea attempted to bring her back to the Organization. When they met again after seven years, Clare greets Galatea and is pleased when she recognises her.

Jean
Clare is in awe of Jean's enormous willpower when she kept her mind even when her body awakened. This inspires her to improve her Quicksword. She fights alongside her without complaint but is irritated by Jean following her after the encounter with Riful. When Jean dies after helping Clare to avoid awakening, she is extremely distraught, saying it was not fair that she, the weakest of the Claymores, should survive while Jean, a single-digit, died. Much later, Jean's death is theorized by Deneve to be the reason why Clare subconsciously prevents herself from fully Awakening.

Behind the Scenes

 * Clare's song on Claymore Intimate Persona is 'Kioku', meaning 'Memory'.
 * In the manga, Flora and Clare fight but in the anime, Jean interferes. Also, in the anime, Clare defeats Rigardo with only her legs awakened, fights Priscilla in the ending episodes and Jean dies to save her from awakening afterwards. Afterwards, she deserts the Organization with Raki.
 * Clare was initially ranked number 47 within the organisation. Her ranking refers to the 47th prefecture, Okinawa prefecture, where Norihiro Yagi, the author of Claymore, was born.