A LITTLE TOUCH OF ROSE - EPISODE 38

[Note that the conversation in this chapter is Chinese but since I can’t write a whole chapter in Chinese, then imagine them speaking it]

Rosita’s standpoint

Early into the morning, Zedekiah and I set off to find the temple. I followed Romi’s signal to the river. When we got there, she instructed us to dive into the water and we did. While swimming under, she led us to two rocks that stood opposite each other and had the symbol of the third oracle on it. We swam between the rocks and then resurface, only to find ourselves resurfacing from a large waterfall with a temple not too far away.

Zedekiah said he didn’t remember swimming the first time, but again he didn’t really remember much. But I could tell from how fresh the carving on the rocks look that the temple was recently moved with the magic of the oracle.

We made our way to the temple, Zed still dazed from the whole thing. I wasn’t really surprise. Every oracle’s main location is kept hidden. The head quarters of our assassin organisation were all magically hidden. Even those that worked for us didn’t know that the mark on them gave them access to locate it. No other could cross over even if they wanted to. As long as the mark wasn’t sealed by the head of the family which is dad or me, they could never cross over.

Did I not mention this from the beginning?

Hmm, guess not.

“We are approaching two lives, threat level 2 and 0,” Romi announced. I step in front of Zed and took the lead just in case. I wasn’t really surprise to see them dressed like monks with their crest on their clothes.

It was a woman and a man, that’ll explain the threat level. The woman was pregnant and the man had a hunter gun strap to his back.

Hunter monk? Cool!

The man got alerted when he saw us and quickly reached behind him to get his gun, but Romi sped over to him and took it. “Do not fire, we come in peace,”

“Stay back,” he said with wide eyes. Even I would get scared if someone should run up to me with such speed. He stood in front of his wife and spread his hands as if that would protect them if I really wanted them dead.

I took off my wet jacket and pulled my camisole down, carefully covering my breasts so he could only see the crest between my breast. I was born with it. The tattoo on my hand was just a bonus.

“Recognise this?” I asked with one brow arched. He wasn’t looking, he was looking at his feet, not my chest. Zedekiah groaned and removed my hand.

“Seriously, Jem, don’t,” he adjusted my camisole, “my name is Zedekiah and this is the head of the Donahue clan, keeper of the first but second eldest oracle. We are looking for Master Zhao, is he in?” I turned and gave him a quizzical look. “I remember his name now,” he shrugged.

“Master Zhao?” The woman asked.

“Head of the Donahue clan?” The man gasped. I turned and smiled at him. He surprised me by bowing down hastily. “Altansarnai, we welcome you to our village,” to say I was shock was an understatement. They knew my name which no one dare know. And to think they actually knew the Donahue was related to… Okay, they knew the oracle crests. I forgot that is what their clan is for, to know it all.

“Stand up.” I commanded. He stood up quickly.

“Come, I’ll take you to our leader,” he hurried, looking at his wife. She nodded with understanding and smiled.

“Do stop by for dinner before you leave, we’ll be honoured to have you over.” I nodded at her before following her husband. He led us into the temple where we met a surprise of a small village. I didn’t know I was capable of getting anymore shock than them knowing my name.

The villagers paused and watched us as we pass. The man seemed to be walking with pride because he was the one showing me the way. From the way they looked at him and how he was glowing, his family must be a very low one; hence leading me was giving him pride. They didn’t even know me so I wasn’t seeing the reason for his pride but whatever.

“Hmm, how did you know my name?”

“It is written under the first oracle’s keeper lineage. Of course, before Master Zhao destroyed it.”

“Destroyed it?”

“To protect the identity of the other two families that still have their oracles. But you see, I was the cleaner of the room it was kept so only I remember it. Don’t worry, I don’t plan on telling anyone. Master Zhao made me swear to keep it to myself. I also know why you are here, but you have to greet the head first then I’ll give you what master said to give to you.” He said briskly.

“Where is Master Zhao?”

“Dead,” was all he said before we reached the doors of the inner temple. Zed and I kept shut as he knocked on it. Few minutes later, a woman came out and when she saw him, she was surprise.

“Yamamoto Kenshin, what are you doing here?”

“Hey, aren’t those Japanese names?”

“They are. My father was Japanese and a regular person but my mother came from here. She took in for him from one of her failed mission but ended up with me. Don’t worry, I do not regret my birth,” he looked at the woman at the door and smiled, “the keeper of the first oracle,” he pointed to me.

“I’m here to see Master Zhao,” I smiled. She was peering at Zedekiah with a look of familiarity while Zed was busy gawking at a girl with bald head sweeping the compound.

“Zedekiah,” I called, nudging his side. He waved me off dismissively and continued to stare at the girl.

“I know you, I’ve seen you before,” the woman said thoughtfully, “seven to eight years ago,”

“Eight,” Zed corrected, still looking at the bald chick, “Master Zhao brought me here… Not here here, the other temple of then. Remember the strange kid he poured something on his back then sent him home?”

“Oh! The blessed soulmate! Of course, honey, come quick!”

This is going to be a long day.

_______________

The whole day was spent with them fuzzing over me and showing me around their temple. The recent leader, Zhang, son of Zhao was quite a man. He was extremely excited about seeing me and told me everything about his father’s dream to meet me before he died. But sadly, he didn’t.

I asked him if they weren’t bothered by not living in civilisation but he gave me very heavy, long and disturbing reasons why it is better to live away from humans and their corruption. His view of life was so cynic I almost ran from fear that he would kill me. I thought he was the only one who shared the view but at the banquet thrown for me, they all had the same point of view.

Mind my business then.

I noticed Kenshin wasn’t at the banquet, neither was his wife. So I asked Zhang what was wrong. He told me that Kenshin was the one with his father when he passed on and he couldn’t rush to call him so they could do the passing rituals. According to him, they had the tradition of doing a ritual right before the leader pass on. But since Kenshin didn’t call them on time, Zhao passed on without the ritual so he was being blamed for sending their master’s soul to ten years of endless wander until they can do the ritual on the tenth anniversary of his death.

I didn’t say a word, I quietly ate my food. The next day, we stayed and explored the place where we really got convinced that the keepers really didn’t like civilisation. Romi and I tracked Kenshin’s home. It wasn’t hard to find since it was a small cottage outside the village.

They welcomed us into their home and showed us where to sit. They were both quite happy by our presence. Kenshin went out straight to get something.

“Where is the boy? The cute one with pretty white hair?”

“At the temple, distracting the head for me. We really don’t have much time so we must be on our way.”

“My husband is on his way,” she smiled as she dropped the plates of food. Fish salad or whatever the dish was. I thanked her and ate it. It actually taste better than I thought.

“So, how long have you two been married?”

“Three years,”

“How long have he been ostracised?”

“Five.”

“So you married him even then?” I asked with interest.

“Love is mysterious,” she shrugged, “and so is destiny. Kenshin didn’t do anything wrong, but no one would believe him. The master was the one who told him to not call anyone, instead he gave him instructions to find a book he kept for you. His instructions were simple and he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. I guess he just trust Kenshin a lot.”

“Wasn’t Kenshin his assistant?”

“Apprentice,”

Knew it.

The man returned with a book in his hands. He dropped the book in front of me and bowed. “Master told me to give you this, only you will understand the writing.”

“Thank you,” I made to open the book but he stopped me, “yes?”

“Before you open it, please, can you do me a favour?” I arched a brow at him, “I want to go with you, my wife and I. This place is no longer home to me. I want our child to grow up in civilisation and…”

“Okay,” I cut him off and pushed his hand away. I would worry about that later. I opened the small book and saw my name on the first page and a rose crossing the names from the middle.

Altansarnai Rosita Jemisha Donahue.

I flipped to the next page and read what was written there. It was written in a language I’ve never seen, but somehow, I understood it.

“The covenant is to keep the oracle alive and can never be broken. However, you are the direct reincarnation of the oracle; hence the strange hair, eyes and inhuman abilities. You are human, you are not immortal, but you are more special than those before you. You may not be able to twist the codes completely, but if you can understand what is written in this book I was directed to write, then maybe you can find a solution to any problem you are facing. I am truly honoured to be chosen by the third oracle to leave you this message.”

“Okay…” I flipped the page to the next. I took my time to read what was written in it. It talked about how the covenant started. When the oracles were losing their powers, ours didn’t as the strongest and due to the fact that the head of the family then and it had a bond. His name was Caspian.

It was written that he could directly hear the voice of the oracle and because of their closeness and his love for it, the oracle was likely to reincarnate and have a body form, reincarnate in his first fruit. He fell in love with an enemy and told her the weakness of the oracle and she used it to destroy it. Though he killed her, what has been done had already been done. To save it, he had to activate the covenant and set a whole lot of laws to guide the family and love was the strongest he was against.

It finally made sense why most of the rules was against falling in love. He feared that the same thing would happen in the future but his mistake was that he forgot that one of the oracle’s main source of energy was love. The heir was always conceived with love and that was why they were stronger and the head of the family could have more than one offspring. With every hatred towards love, our family grew weaker until they all slowly died and left just the head and his successor.

The book also explained that because my father was actually in love with mom and mom loved him back when I was conceived and she got pregnant before father made her take the oath, that was why I was female and stronger. Females are compassionate and tender. It was easier to melt our hearts than men’s. Dad even made it better by raising me in love and wishing that I have one too.

Our oracle had gone too weak so it lived in me to sustain it life until I would fix things again. The book then repeated that it cannot be broken but can be fixed.

They was a bunch of solutions to any problem I would possibly face, but that wasn’t my problem. At long last, I came upon the one I needed. The final solution.

Zedekiah’s standpoint

“Mother, we’re home!” Rosita shrieked as we walked into the living room. Mom was sitting on the white divan sofa, Yvonne’s head on her laps as they both stared at the television with wide eyes. They were watching porn?

“What the hell,” I said quizzically. Yvonne stood up with a squeal as well as mom. Before we were tackled, I looked at dad sitting in the rollback sofa with Brayleigh. They both shrugged innocently.

“Urgh, mom, you are heavy,” Rosita growled, but Yvonne kept squealing.

“My darling, I’ve missed you so much,”

“Missed you too, mom,”

“Mom, you are suffocating me,” I gasped for air. “Dad!!!”

“Fine! Zelda, give your son some room!” Mom clucked but still pulled away from me grinningly.

“How was the honeymoon?”

“It was a vacation,” I scoffed. Mom didn’t know. We couldn’t quite tell her when she was a talkative. She cannot keep a secret. I wasn’t surprise Brayleigh knew, she could take a secret to her grave.

“Who is that one?” Brayleigh asked, looking at Kenshin. His wife stayed back with someone Rosita dropped her with. The man worked for Rosita so he was to train them so they wouldn’t be socially awkward. But first, Kenshin came with us.

“Someone from there,” I said cryptically. They nodded in understanding while Mom pouted.

“You brought him from China? Is that legal?”

“Nope,” Rosita grinned, getting up from the floor with Yvonne. (Rosita’s mother)

“Good thing we left with my jet. He’ll return after he does something for me… Hey! How’s Reece?” Rosita asked excitedly.

“He is still unconscious, but okay. Sakura is sleeping upstairs with him,” Yvonne replied, understanding what Rosita was trying to do. “Zelda honey, why don’t you go get the things we bought them for their next romantic date? You know, the one that will give us grandchildren?” Mom squealed and off she went to get the mall they probably bought.

“Yamamoto Kenshin,” Kenshin greeted with a bow.

“Mom, this man is the solution to what we need to do. According to the book, the only way to stop dad is to kill him…”

“Wh…”

“Hezzy, let me finish,” Rosita cut dad off while I went to sit at the Chesterfield chair, “he doesn’t need to actually die, he just needs to be asleep for as long as two to three years. He already broke the code for me, so it is only active in him. With him asleep, I could take over as the head of the family. Once I become the supreme head, the force would slowly die until he no longer has to listen to it!” Rosita said excitedly. “It’s that simple!”

“So how does he come in?” Dad asked, eyeing Kenshin.

“Do you know any way we can put him to a long death sleep without actually killing him or harming him?” I asked with a knowing look.

“Probably not.” Brayleigh heaved.

“Kenshin here knows how to make a concoction that will keep him down for as long as we inject him with it. He is going to make it and teach me how to make it. Now the only problem is how to get my really smart dad to drink it without suspecting. I could easily shoot him, but he needs to drink it willingly with no sign of force or stress. How do we do that?” Rosita asked, looking at each and everyone of them.

Dad smirked and cracked his neck. “Leave that to me.”

“Are you sure? He’s really smart,” Rosita said worriedly.

“Roe Roe, your father is in Tokyo as we speak…”

“What!” Rosita and I shouted.

“And he’ll be here in three hours.” Dad said casually. Yvonne started shaking with fear.

“Hezekiah, why didn’t you tell us!” Brayleigh shouted.

“Because you would react like this and Zelda would get suspicious,” dad looked at his wristwatch, “make that two hours and fifty minutes,”

Rosita turned sharply to Kenshin. “How fast can you make it?”

“I need to get the rest of the ingredients…”

“Give me the list, I’ll get Romi on it. Hezzy, I need you to knock Zelda out and you don’t need to do this, leave it to me,” she took in a deep breath and looked at me. I looked deep into her eyes shining with mischief and smirked.

“Ready to give my father a show, Zeddick?”

“Born ready, bitch.”