Eat Your Heart Out 

The battlefield heats up in Claymore volume 22 as Cassandra the Dusteater, a newly awakened Abyssal One, clashes with Roxanne of Love and Hate—leaving the rest of the Claymores trapped in the middle!

There were hints in the last volume that Cassandra and Roxanne were lovers, but Cassandra takes the phrase “All-consuming love” to an entirely different level when she decides to make Roxanne her next meal. Cassandra plays up her namesake by chomping down anything that gets in her way: dirt, dust, and any of Roxanne’s limbs that she can sink her teeth into. 

Cannibalism isn’t exactly endearing, but it’s hard not to cheer for Cassandra considering all that Roxanne put her through when they were still alive. It’s a simple case of just desserts that Roxanne slowly gets devoured by Cassandra— after all, she heartlessly (and gleefully) watched Cassandra’s only friend get torn apart by a yoma.

Cassandra’s sheer size and endless hunger seem to make her the obvious winner in the battle, but with the Organization’s scientists involved, nothing is that simple. Dae, one of the most mysterious members of the Organization, tells us that Roxanne and Hysteria’s awakenings are as inevitable as Cassandra’s…and unfortunately he’s right. Suddenly there’s not one but three Abyssal Ones on the battlefield.

With the two behemoths Cassandra and Roxanne duking it out and Hysteria the Elegant hot on her heels, Miria’s job of protecting her fellow Claymores suddenly becomes that much harder. Luckily, she gains some help in a cinch from some familiar faces: all the friends she left behind finally make their way onto the battlefield.

There’s a definite sense of anger there from Miria’s old teammates, and justifiably so. Miria’s attempt to take on the Organization by herself nearly cost her everything—which is in itself ridiculous, considering the amount of time her and her friends put into planning how to take down the Organization as a team. On one hand, Miria deserves respect for wanting to spare her friends from getting wounded in battle. But on the other hand, she should have predicted that getting herself killed would have hurt her friends just as much, if not more.

 
With Miria sufficiently reprimanded and reminded of her duty to her teammates, the remaining Claymores turn to face their biggest threat so far: the awakened Hysteria, whose cruelty and madness is rivaled only by Roxanne’s.

Hysteria, a speed demon even in her un-awakened state, becomes an entirely new monster when her Abyssal form allows her to sprout dozens of razor sharp, spindly legs. With Hysteria’s determination to decimate Miria and her forces—and Roxanne and Cassandra fighting not so far away—the Claymores must find a way to combine their strengths and come out of this battle alive.

 
But with three Abyssal Ones on the rampage and our heroine Claire nowhere to be found, will Miria and the rest be able to pull it together before they’re all slashed to pieces?

Claymore volume 22 is available from VIZ.com!

 by Gretchen Smail