Chapter 12 — My New Sisters?

Rose's POV

What happened?

"One! What will we do? She's covered in blood!"

I had such a strange dream.

"Sister Rose is not moving! She is dead?"

There was a flower and Alan was some kind of angel.

"We need to get help! HELP!"

I don't know if that was real or a hallucination.

"But where? We are in the middle of a forest!"

Suddenly my memories of what happened came back, it was all true, and most of all I was dead.

"WWWAAAAHHH!"

"HELP!"

"SISTER ROSE, PLEASE DON'T DIE!"

But if I had died, how am I thinking here and now? Another question. Where am I exactly? Who was making that annoying cry?

"WWWAAAHHH!"

"SHUT UP!" I screamed as I got up abruptly, to my surprise and I was face to face with five little girls who looked at me with wide and red eyes from crying, the little girls stared at me for a few seconds, and then all of them except for one ran towards me and hugged me.

"SISTER ROSE!" The little girls squealed as they hugged me.

Sister? I don't have sisters! Who are these children? And what are they doing here in the middle of the forest.

"Sister Rose, we thought you were dead!" The girl with the brown hair tied in twin tails said to me.

"You were covered in blood and not moving!" The blue haired girl said.

"For a moment I thought you were going to leave us!" The girl with long purple hair spoke.

"I can't imagine what would become of us without you!" This time it was a girl with blonde hair.

"Sister Rose." The last little girl spoke, she was the one who hadn't hugged me yet, she had light blonde hair and red eyes, the girl approached me slowly, the little girls stopped hugging me and gave space for the red-eyed girl to approach.

The girl stops in front of me and stares I stared back, suddenly tears formed in her eyes and she hugged me.

"I am glad to see that you are well, Sister Rose." The red-eyed girl said as she hugged me.

I didn't hug her back, that was wrong, there was something wrong, I don't have sisters, I don't know where I am and I don't know who these girls are. I need to know what's going on. I took a step back out of the red-eyed girl's embrace.

"Sister Rose? There's something wrong?" The little red-eyed girl asked as she approached me, I took a few more steps back.

"Don't approach me!" I yelled at the red-eyed girl, she flinched at my scream.

"Sister Rose, what happened? Did I do something wrong? I'm sorry for hugging you without your permission!" The little red-eyed girl said as she tried to get closer.

"Stop! Just stop calling me sister! I have no sisters!" I said to the little girls.

"Sister Rose, are you okay? Did you hit your head? We are your sisters. Remember? I am One the second eldest, one of your sisters." One said as she pointed at himself.

"I am Two the third oldest!" The blue haired girl now known as Two said as she bounced around me.

"I am Three, the fourth oldest." The purple-haired girl identified herself as Three, and then she let out a long yawn and fell asleep on the floor.

"I am Four the fifth oldest sister." The twin tails girl said, Four then stopped in front of me next to One.

"And I am Five, the youngest of us all." The blonde haired girl said, I suddenly heard a stomach rumble, it was coming from Five.

"You wouldn't have some food, would you?" Five asked me.

"Five, please behave yourself! Can't you see Sister Rose is confused?" Four said to Five.

"I'm just asking, it's been a while since I ate anything." Five replied.

"Hey Rose! Rose! Rose!" Two yelled trying to get my attention as she jumped around me.

"Sister Rose, I think you should wash up, get the blood out of your body, and find something to wear." One said as she averted her gaze from me.

I looked at myself, I saw that I was covered in blood, this girl was right, walking around covered in blood is only going to get me into trouble, and there must be a river here somewhere.

I started walking towards the trees of the forest, I hope to find a river before this blood dries up, as I walked among the trees I heard footsteps behind me, when I looked back I saw all the little girls following me forming a line, starting with One and ending with Five.

"What are you doing?" I asked them.

"We will go with you." Two said.

"We can't let our sister walk through the woods alone." Four spoke.

"What if you get attacked by someone?" This time it was Five.

"And frankly, we are lost; we have no idea where to go." Three said as she shrugged.

"Where are your parents? Why don't you go back home? They must be worried." I told them, I just want to get rid of these kids and find out what happened to me.

"Sister Rose, our parents are long gone, Five was just a baby back then, you have been taking care of us ever since." One said to me.

What nonsense is this? Parents?! I have no idea who my father is and my mother barely bothered to take care of me, let alone five other girls. If this is a joke they're playing, then it's not funny.

"Serious?! You said you were the second oldest, right? Then who is your older sister?" I asked One.

"What a strange question sister Rose, you are the eldest." One said as she pointed at me.

I wanted to laugh at this situation, this must be some kind of bad joke, it's the only possibility, these five girls were supposed to be playing in the forest and decided to play a trick on me by seeing me lying unconscious on the ground.

"Okay, I have another question. What do our parents look like?" Let's see what the answer will be this time.

"Sister Rose, are you okay? You're asking a lot of weird questions, our parents look like… like… like… ARGH!" Suddenly, One grabbed her head like she was in severe pain.

"I can't… I can't remember what our parents looked like. Two, Three, Four, Five, do any of you remember what our parents looked like?" One said to his sisters.

"Of course, One! Our mother was… her eyes were colored… ARGH!" Four grabbed her head as well.

"If I remember correctly, our mother had hair… and she liked… AAHH!" The same result was repeated with Two.

"Our dad worked at… he had hair… and a voice… AH!" Three had the same reaction.

"What's going on with you guys? Of course our dad… he liked… ARGH!" Five had a similar reaction.

"Can no one remember what our parents look like?" One asked worriedly to sweat sisters. They all nodded negatively with worried looks on their faces.

"Sister Rose, what's going on?! Why can't we remember our parents?!" One asked as she approached me.

"Are we going to forget about other things too?!" Three asked.

"I don't want to forget about you?!" Two screamed.

"What if we forget about one, the other?!" Four asked as she approached me.

"Sister Rose, what shall we do?" Five asked me.

Soon all the girls were surrounding me and asking questions simultaneously, until I couldn't take it anymore, I needed silence to think.

"SHUT UP!" I screamed as I slammed my hand against a tree, I expected to get hurt, but to my surprise the tree was snapped in two.

When I looked back at the girls, they had turned away from me and were now looking at me in alarm, when I heard a noise.

SNIF!

They won't…

SNIF!

Please don't…

"WWWAAAHHH!"

Yes they will, suddenly they all started crying. But what situation did I get myself into? I'm naked, covered in blood, in the middle of a forest and with five girls crying in front of me, if anyone shows up here, I doubt I can explain it. What should I do? What would Alan do? Yes, Rose, what would Alan do? He had a way with these things.

Slowly I approached my supposed sisters; I crouched down until I was at their height and gave them a smile.

"I'm sorry for yelling, I'm confused, a lot has happened in a short time. So how about we calm down, we can try to figure out what's going on next. First let me wash off this blood, find something to wear, then we can stop at a town or city to see if anyone knows your parents."

This seemed to work, as all five girls stopped crying, wiped their tears and smiled at me.

"Thank you Sister Rose!" All five simultaneously.

"Great, then let's go! There must be a river somewhere." Crisis averted, but now I have to stop somewhere to ask about the parents of these brats, they lined up behind me and accompanied me with smiles on their faces, as I walked, I kept looking at my hands as I opened and closed them, the What I did with that tree was not normal. What happened with me?

TIMESKIP

Rose's POV

Finally I found a river, when I entered the water I felt able to relax a little; I leaned against the bank and stayed there with my eyes closed for a few seconds enjoying the sensation of the water. When was the last time I was able to take a shower? I lifted my arm and sniffed my armpit, my face contorted in disgust. Apparently a long time ago, I was going to get some water in my hands to wash my hair, but when I tried to do that, I ended up seeing the reflection of my face in the water and I almost screamed at what I saw.

There was a flower sticking out of my eye, a pink five-petal flower was in the place of my right eye, it was the same flower I saw on the execution platform. What was she doing here? Was it this flower that brought me back to life? Slowly I brought my hand to the flower, but when I touched it I had a bad feeling, the feeling that I was touching something disgusting, something bad, and something evil. I quickly removed my hand from the flower; I'll worry about that later, focus on relaxing Rose.

I leaned against the bank again and closed my eyes.

"CANNON BALL!"

Wait what?!

Something threw itself into the water in front of me splashing water in my face, the thing came out from under the water, it was Two, she had jumped into the river with her clothes and everything, and Two was laughing and smiling at me.

"HAHAHA! Got you sister Rose!" Two then slammed both hands into the water, throwing even more water at me.

"Stop you brat! What are you doing?" She said as she shielded my face with my hands.

"Playing with you!" Two replied as she continued to shoot water.

"And where are your sisters?"

"Three is right there!" Two pointed to something that was floating in the river, it was Three, she had face inside the river and she was floating without moving, she looked like a corpse, I saw bubbles coming out rhythmically from under the water next to her. Three was sleeping?

"Aren't you supposed to help your sister?" I asked Two, I don't want to be seen next to a drowned child's corpse.

"Don't worry, Three does this all the time, she can sleep anywhere. Remember that time she fell asleep on top of the stairs at our house and you ended up tripping over her and falling down the stairs?" Two asked me.

"No." Once again they insist I'm their sister and talk about things that never happened.

"Oh! No problem, this happened a long time ago. Let's keep playing!" Two said as she splashed water on me.

"You brat!" I screamed as I hit the water, splashing water on Two, it only made her laugh.

"HAHAHA!"

"I see you are having fun." Looking to my side I saw Five sitting on the bank of the river "Unfortunately I won't participate, I don't want to get my hair wet."

What Five didn't notice was Four approaching her from behind, Four then pushed Five into the river.

"AAAHHH!" Five screamed as she fell into the water.

"HAHAHA!" Four chuckled as she pointed at Five, but Four didn't end up noticing Five jumping out of the river, grabbing her leg and dragging her into the river.

"AAAHHH!" This time it was Four who screamed as she fell into the river, Four and Five began to struggle in the water, one trying to dunk the other under the water.

Now there was only one sister left. Where is she? Looking back, I saw One hiding behind a tree as she watched us.

"Hey you!" I called One, she tried to hide better, but I had already seen her.

"No use hiding, I've seen you, come here." Timidly One came out from behind the tree and approached me; she sat beside me outside the river.

"How can I help you sister?" One asked me, I still don't believe they are my sisters, but I don't have the energy to argue about that right now.

"Why aren't you playing with your sisters?" I asked One.

"I can't, as the second oldest sister; it's my responsibility to take care of my sisters. What if something happens when I'm distracted?" One answered me.

"I see you have a great sense of responsibility."

"Of course! You taught me that in the end, the older sister must take care of the younger ones!" One said to me with a smile.

I never said that, just like I never had sisters.

"But nothing will happen now, so why don't you have some fun?"

"Sister Rose that isn't… AAHH!" I didn't let One finish as I put my hand on her back and pushed her into the river; One came out from under the water and stared at me irritably.

Before she could say anything, Two splashed water on her face, and One did the same throwing water on Two, soon the two girls started playing, now that all the children are distracted I can relax again.

TIMESKIP

Rose's POV

"Are you sure about this, Sister Rose?" Two asked me.

"Yes." I replied.

"But stealing is wrong!" Four said to me.

"I don't know if you noticed, but I need clothes." She said to Four.

"Sister Rose is right; a real lady shouldn't walk around naked." Five said to Four.

"There will be problems if one of us gets caught." Three said.

"That's why I want only one of you to go." She said to Three.

"That's enough, I'll go, but Sister Rose I want you to promise we won't steal again, we should be getting clothes for our money." One said as she stared at me.

"Fine! I promise!" She said to One.

"Thanks." One said asshe walked away.

The situation I found myself in was as follows, after washing the blood in the river, the girls and I found a village on the outskirts of the forest. The problem, I was naked and I had a flower in my eye, but there was a solution to that problem. We were hidden among the trees looking at the back of a house, there were some clotheslines with clothes hanging on them, shirts, pants, and a cloak with a hood, near the clothesline there was a pair of boots, everything I needed.

All that was needed was for one of the girls to go there and get the clothes for me, and One volunteered to go. And apparently she did, One was running back with clothes in her hands and there was no angry peasant behind her.

"Here is Sister Rose." One said asshe handed me the clothes.

"Thanks." I went behind a tree to get dressed.

TIMESKIP

The girls and I were standing in front of the entrance to the village, judging by the distance from this place and the forest these girls must have come from here, at the moment I was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, brown pants, brown boots and a brown cloak with a hood, I put the hood over my head and turned to the girls.

"Very well, we are going to enter the village, stay close to me and do not cause trouble, we will speak with the villagers to find out if any of them knew your parents." She said to the sisters in front of me.

"You don't mean our parents?" Four asked me.

"No." She said to Four, she looked down sadly.

I took a deep breath, calm down Rose, remember that you are a wanted criminal, let's not draw unnecessary attention.

"Listen, I'm trying to understand what's going on, I don't know who these parents are that you talk about and you for some reason can't remember anything about your parents. There's something wrong here, until then we won't assume anything, understand?" I asked the sisters.

"Yes sister Rose." All responded simultaneously.

I wanted to slap myself in the face; didn't they hear what I just said? Never mind! "Let's go!"

So I entered the village with the sisters accompanying me, it was a medium-sized village, the streets were made of earth and stones, the houses were made of wood or stone, I managed to see small businesses here and there, a sewing shop, a bakery, a forge, a carpentry shop, walking through the streets I could see people's eyes, we were being stared at, probably because we were outsiders, and because I was hiding my face and I was accompanied by five children.

"Sister Rose, I don't like how they are looking at us." Four said to me.

"Just ignore it, if they try anything I'll make them swallow their own teeth." I said to Four.

"That wasn't nice to say Sister Rose." Two said next to me.

"Merely don't give attention, in the possible future they decide to take some aggressive action due to our presence; I will take action for them to consume their own teeth. Better now?"

"Yes." Three replied.

"Three! Sister Rose, please don't take such aggressive actions, the people in this village are just suspicious, and we won't harm them." One said to Three and me.

"Fine! But be careful." Said to One.

"Yes Sister." One replied.

"Sister Rose, I am hungry." Five said to me.

"I don't have any money at the moment Five; you will have to wait a bit."

"Right." Five said as she looked down and held her stomach.

Great, one more problem, I don't have a single penny to my name, but I know how to solve this, but not right now. Let's see if we can find anything about the parents of these children.

TIMESKIP

The result wasn't good, we spent the whole day walking around the village, but no one heard from these children and their parents, it didn't help that the five sisters in front of me couldn't even remember their parents' names. What have I gotten myself into?

RUMBLE!

I heard a noise near me; looking to the side I saw Five with her face red with embarrassment.

"Are you still hungry?" I asked Five.

"Yes." She replied while nodding.

"Is anyone else here hungry?" I asked the sisters around me.

"I'm hungry." Two said.

"And I thirsty." Four said.

"I'm tired." Three.

"And you One?" I asked the girl who had been silent.

"You don't have to worry about me sister Rose, I'm perfectly fine…"

RUMBLE!

One was interrupted by the growl of her stomach, her face turned red with embarrassment, I laughed a little at that.

"Stay here, I'll be right back, One you will be responsible for taking care of your sisters."

"You can count on me, Sister Rose!" One said as she straightened her posture and puffed out her chest.

"Excellent." I said as I walked away, time to get some money.

I started walking through the village, the sun was already setting, and its inhabitants were returning to their homes after a long day at work, perfect, they were so tired that they didn't pay attention to me when I passed by their side, thanks to that I managed to taking their purses of coins unnoticed, bronze, silver, but no gold, after a few minutes I had enough money to buy a meal. Time to go back.

The sisters were in the same place where I had left them, seeing me they ran towards me.

"Sister Rose!" They screamed and hugged me; I got out of the hug quickly.

"So who would like some food?" I said as I tossed a bag of coins up and down in my hand.

"ME! ME! MEI!" They all screamed as they jumped up and down.

TIMESKIP

We were inside a tavern, we sat at a corner table, each of us had a plate of food in front of us, the sisters were eating in a hurry, as if they were going to die of hunger, pieces of food were flying out of the plate and from their mouths as they chewed with their mouths open.

The noise bothered me. Was this how Alan felt when we ate together? "Eat slowly and with your mouth closed!" I said to the sisters.

"Yes sister Rose!" They all said and began to eat slowly and with their mouths closed.

I started to eat my food, while eating I sharpened my hearing to hear the conversations in the tavern; this is a great place to hear interesting information. There seems to be a conversation going on right now.

"Did you hear the latest news?"

"No, which ones?"

"Much of Cathedral City has been destroyed!"

"I don't believe that!"

"It's true, the Institute of Magic is gone, most of the soldiers are dead and there's a giant crater in the middle of the city!"

"How did this happen? That place was a fortress!"

"There are many strange stories, they say that the Institute of Magic was experimenting on an angel, but the angel managed to escape and unleashed his divine fury on the city, others say that a huge explosion happened out of nowhere and the explosion took the shape of a flower."

"An angel? The kind with the wings and the halo on top of the head?"

"I'm not sure, according to the survivors it looked more like an angel from hell."

"What about the flower-shaped explosion?"

"Probably a hallucination caused by panic."

"How could the Lords let this happen?"

"None of them were in town at the time, but one thing they were assured, two of Midgard's biggest criminals were killed in the chaos."

"Which criminals?"

"Rose better known as the Pink Eyed Witch and the magic user known as Alan. Not a single piece of them was found, probably reduced to ashes by the explosion."

"Hm! Well done, two less criminals to worry about."

I turned my attention back to my food. So does that mean I was presumed dead? Good to know, less trouble for me. And Alan… He probably went back to heaven. Who knew he was an angel? He was too weird to be a normal person. What is he doing now? Probably trying and failing to get some angel girls into his bed. Damn virgin. Wait a minute, can angels get laid? Does he even have what it needs? Well, that would explain why he never tried to get a girlfriend. Poor guy.

"We are done!" The sisters said to me.

"Great, then let's go!" I paid for our food and we left the tavern and headed towards the village exit.

"Sister Rose, aren't we going to stay overnight?" One asked me.

"I don't, but you will." I said to One.

"Sister Rose, what do you mean?" One asked me worriedly.

We were at the village gate, I was outside and the sisters were in front of me side by side.

"Listen, I can't take you with me, Midgard is a dangerous place, and I can't take care of you."

The sisters widened their eyes; I could see the tears starting to form.

"Why not?" Five asked.

"Did we do something wrong?" Four said.

"Do you not love us anymore?" Three spoke.

"You're not going to leave us, are you? Two asked hesitantly.

One then took a step forward, "Sister Rose, please explain! Why are you saying these mean things?! Did we do something to anger you?! Are you tired of us?! We can change! We can behave better! If the issue is money, we can get a job to help you!" As One spoke, the other sisters nodded in agreement.

"That's not the problem!" I said to One.

"So what's the problem?! Tell us! We can help!" One said as she approached.

"I'm a bad person, okay! I stole and killed innocents because I thought my friend was dead! I literally killed hundreds of people for the stupidest of reasons! I should be dead! I deserved to be dead! I have no idea who you are or why you consider me your big sister! But I'm the worst person to have as a sister! You deserve someone better!"

Okay, I said, now that they know the truth everyone will leave me, it's better this way, suddenly I felt something colliding with my body. It was One. What was she doing? She was hugging me.

"This is not true!" One screamed with tears in her eyes, and then all the other sisters hugged me.

"You were always the kindest person in the world." Four said.

"You told us stories!" Three said.

"You sang to us until we fell asleep!" Five said.

"You always played with us!" Two said.

"You cooked the most delicious food! You sewed the best clothes for us! You put together the best toys for us! You…" And the sisters continued, they spoke of how amazing and wonderful I was, but I knew none of it was true, it was all fake, it was all lies, the Rose these girls know and the real Rose couldn't be more different.

But... But would it be so bad to act like the Rose they imagined? Pretend I always had sisters? Maybe there's no harm in showing a little kindness, a kindness I was shown a long time ago.

"Okay, you can come with me."

"Seriously?!" One asked me as she pulled out of my embrace.

"Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!" The sisters repeatedly said.

"Now dry those tears, we have a place to go." I said as I turned around to walk away from the village. The sisters followed me soon after.

"Where are we going Sister Rose?" One asked me.

"We are going to hunt for treasure."

"A treasure!" Two screamed. I nodded my head.

"A pirate's treasure?" Four asked.

"No." I replied.

"A treasure full of jewels and precious stones?" Five asked.

"No." Respond once more.

"A cursed treasure?" Three asked.

Didn't you hear what I just said?

"What kind of treasure are we talking about, Sister Rose?" One asked me.

"Coins, lots of coins." I hope it's still there under the apple tree.

This seemed to cheer the girls up.

"I'm going to buy lots of food and dresses!"

"I am going to buy several dolls!"

"I'm going to buy a sword!"

"I'm going to buy a ship!"

"And you One? What will you buy?" I asked One.

"A book." One answered me embarrassed.

"A good choice One." Said to One.

We'd been walking down the road for a while, and then I felt One pulling my shirt.

"What's it?"

"Sister Rose? Can I hold your hand?" One asked me.

"Yes you can." Said while sighing, slowly One held my hand and a small smile formed on her face.

"Thank you Sister Rose." One said.

Rose? I feel like this name doesn't suit me anymore. Rose died in Cathedral City; I'm a new person now, but who? I looked at the sister who accompanied me, One, Two, Three, Four and Five, each of them had a number on their forehead, I, II, III, IV, V, but I had none, zero, Zero, 0.

"One?"

"Yes sister Rose?"

"Call me Zero."

END OF CHAPTER

Hello thanks for reading this far; before you go I would like to leave a little note about future chapters.

As you can see Rose and Alan went their separate ways, I plan on doing about two chapters each explaining what happened to each of them. Today's was Rose's, but soon we'll get into the events of the Manga, so if you haven't read it, I recommend you read because there will be spoilers.

I also would like to answer some reviews to this story, but unfortunately I would end up spoiling what I have planned for future chapters.

That's it for now, until the next chapter.