On the other hand, he DID buy her an opportunity with Ophelia ... when she had her fingers in Clare's chest and whatnot. This despite being a human.

Also, consider that the male Awakened they faced seemed quite present of mind, hiding in human form, completely masking his yoki, etc. He knew what was up ... who's to say he didn't have full control of his appetite? Further, Awakened Priscilla seemed quite present-minded, just that she was a bit twisted even as a claymore.

I propose that if all 4 of the slashers are half-awakened, it must not be THAT unthinkable (or even that uncommon) for claymores to reach that state. Consider that that's 4 out of 47 current claymores -- roughly one in twelve of them -- all at about the same time. Given that claymores live a relatively long (but undisclosed) time as claymores, and presumably that the male awakened being in the Slashers arc was, in fact, essentially a half-awakened dump who had apparently disposed of many such claymores throughout the years, it's probably better than 10% of them that end up that way. It might be fair to guess as many as 1 in 6 to 1 in 8 of them have half-awakened to be eaten by that guy.

If the half-awakening is that common, is it inconcievable for a male to reach that point, given that he's got the proper motivation and mindset? If anyone's got a suitably present mind and high degree of self-mastery, it's Raki, as underscored by his silence during the fight with Ophelia.

However, I think it's important that Raki stays human. If he's not fully human, then we can no longer identify with any character in the story, and the series degenerates to a fairly hard-to-feel "monster versus monster" scenario.

Further, Clare's specialty is specifically attuned to fighting against high-end enemies -- awakened beings, high-powered yoma, partially-released claymores. Having a fully-human Raki capable of covering the low-end (say ... humans, very weak yoma, unreleased claymores) would make them very much a complementary pair, covering each other's weaknesses and basically completing each other on the battlefield.

This, in my opinion, would be an ideal scenario both from a combat perspective and a storytelling perspective.