Scene 5 Teresa of the Faint Smile (Hohoemi no Teresa)
A Claymore starts off by slaying a montage of several Yoma. The villagers that apparently hired her are thankful and attempt to pay her. The Claymore responds by telling them to give the money to a black robed man who will come by later to collect it. This prompts them to complain that they might pay a different person, which she responds by telling them to be careful in that respect lest their village be destroyed by Yoma.
The Claymore meets this man that she described, he says that how she put it made it sound like the Yoma were being sent by the Organization. She asks for her next assignment. She is to go to the town of Theo. She is the 182nd warrior and 77th of Claymores and is somewhat of a powerful fighter. Her name is Teresa and she always has a faint smile upon her face.
Teresa of the Faint Smile
Upon entering into a village, she seems to indiscriminately begin to cut down human beings. Two of them become Yoma and they too are killed. The corpses of the ones she has killed upon entering the village turn into Yoma and the remaining villagers are deeply shocked by this fact. However, she says that there should be seven Yoma, yet she has only killed six.
She then jumps over to a man holding a little girl, and asks him if he really thought he could hide from her as she slices him in two.
Resting in the town, she wakes up the next morning. As she explains the process payment for completed mission a little girl (who the Yoma from the day before used to hide himself behind) grabs her cape. Teresa quick knocks her over.
A townsman states that the girl is mute and seems to have been badly abused by the Yoma. She gives Teresa a hug, which is met with a bit of violence on Teresa’s part. ( she seems to be a much different sort of Claymore than Clare is).
As Teresa leaves for the woods, the small girl follows the Claymore. Waving her sword around, Teresa tries to scare the girl off, however, it would seem that danger is afoot for real. She pauses, and sees several people in the forest drop to the ground. In fact, she almost kills a human before she can tell it’s not a Yoma!
One man lays his hand on the mute girl and Teresa cuts off his hand, but it still seems they’re humans. They’re bandits! They can tell, however, that she’s a Claymore and she tells them she hasn’t anything of value. She also warns that the man whose hand she cut off could easily bleed to death if they don’t treat him soon.
One of the criminals warns that Claymores are powerful and she shouldn’t be messed with. He knows that they are supernatural warriors. It’s my guess that a lot of fans have probably been waiting to see what a Claymore can do against a mortal foe. All they seem to have previously fought were Yoma. One of the bandits is wise to this situation though, since he tells the others that Claymores can’t murder a human or they’ll get killed too. This makes the rest of the bandits laugh.
Teresa figures out that they are probably about to violate her and in response, she opens up her shirt. They’re sickened by what must be very unnatural and flee the area. Teresa tells the mute girl to leave.
She doesn’t leave though and Teresa starts to realize that she is going to have to put and end to this whether by hook or by crook. This realization prompts her to jump off a cliff and the girl follows her! You would think that Teresa would do something to save the girl but she doesn’t. The mute girl doesn’t die as a result of the fall, though it is only because her fall was softened (a little bit) by grabbing onto a branch which breaks causing her to crash to the ground. Knocking herself out.
If the seemingly heartless Teresa is going to finally get rid of the tag-a-long, this is probably her best chance to do it.
Instead, however, she tosses the girl into a river in the hopes of waking her up. She certainly lacks some of the finesse that Clare possesses. She feeds the girl, and laments that its almost as though she has a pet. The girl falls asleep. When she awakes the next morning Teresa is not there. The little girl starts to tear-up but then sees Teresa walking towards her with a rabbit.
Once again, in the forest, Riku (the guy Teresa injured in the woods) appears and starts his pursuit after them. The girl begins to fall asleep, and Teresa watches over her to make sure no trouble comes of her. With the coming of the next morning, Teresa tries to find a name for her. After all, she cannot continue calling her hey or you. Teresa comes up with a name: she addresses the young girl as Clare.
Clare is very happy. She tries to talk but she doesn’t know how. Teresa surmises that Clare is the girl’s real name and tells her that her parents named her after one of the twin goddesses Teresa and Clare.
