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I've been watching Claymore. I haven't read the manga yet.

Number 8, Flora:

> She's the fastest there is at unsheathing, slashing, and sheathing back her
> claymore.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Aq62u.png)

As you can see, she unsheathes, slashes, and sheathes back so fast that the
image of her hand seems to be static, whereas a bunch of slashes appear around
the target.

But wait.

**What is the _point_ of sheathing her claymore back while attacking
someone?** Isn't that a waste of time? Wouldn't it be more useful to unsheathe
and then slash countless times rather than sheathing back her claymore during
a fight?

**Proof that she's indeed sheathing after X amount of slashes** :

This scene below lasts for **several seconds**. This means that she must
continuously sheathe her claymore, otherwise this image effect wouldn't be
possible: ![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2B7l0.png)


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claymore
Isn't Flora's ability inefficient?


There's actually a fencing style based entirely on the drawing of the sword
called [Iaijutsu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iaijutsu). For a reference, the
[Ukyo Tachibana character from the game, "Samurai
Shodown"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSzEACull7A) uses this technique,
drawing the sword as a form of attack and re-sheathing the blade all in one
move. There is also [Iaido](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iaid%C5%8D), "a
modern Japanese martial art associated with the smooth, controlled movements
of drawing the sword from its scabbard or saya, striking or cutting an
opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the
scabbard." Though in practice, the Iaido isn't a super fast movement. But
again, the emphasis is on the sheathed sword being a starting point, so in
order to perform another move, the sword has to be re-sheathed.

The Iaijutsu article mentions that there is two postures for executing the
technique, the standing position or the kneeling position, but both involve
the sword being sheathed and using the drawing of the sword as a strike.
Obviously, there's no real world instance of someone doing this as fast as
Flora, but the technique is that the starting point of the strike is from a
sheathed sword.

Other well known users of this technique (though not necessarily the only
technique that is used):

  * [Goemon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goemon_Ishikawa_XIII) (Lupin III)
  * [Himura Kenshin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himura_Kenshin) (Rurouni Kenshin)
  * [Ginkaku Uneri](http://katanagatari.wikia.com/wiki/Ginkaku_Uneri) (Katanagatari)
  * Honoka (The Third)


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