1st April 2024
Moo-young
Hong-ju and I had travelled to Melbourne to guard Rose’s spirit after Andrew had informed us of the threat to her life. I was curious about the time both of them spent in Australia. The manager who greeted Hong-ju with a friendly hug, handed me a simple silver ring.
The ring was a universal translator, allowing me to communicate with non Korean speakers. She gave me a 30 degree bow “annyeonghasimnikka, I’m Matilda Cooper, head of the demon hunting department.” with a head nod, “Cheon Moo-young, “Hong-ju has spoken about you for the longest time, so it’s nice to finally meet you.”
Matilda’s professionalism and respect for other cultures showed with her formal greeting towards me. Her relaxed attitude gave off an informal vibe, which was different to how Korean society was.
Our accommodation was the guest studio apartment. I was introduced to Lydia, Rose’s former partner and current manager of the medical department.
She greeted us then surprised both of us by getting on the ground and bowing to me. “You saved my partner’s life back in 1938.” Hong-ju picked up Lydia and held her until she calmed down.
I blinked a few times to make sure I was awake as I wasn’t expecting this response or her knowing about what had happened back then. When she was composed, while we headed to Rose’s room she told us “the physical marks haven’t carried over to her spirit body, so the shield placed by yourself and her adopted brother has protected her core.”
I was taken back to how hard the operation was to perform and how much it took out of me. Hearing this from her former partner made all the effort worth it. We paused to make sure we had our emotions in check before seeing our sister.
The room was simpler than the hospital back in Korea, with lavender walls and carpet. We sat either side of her and I was taken back to when we landed. There were so many languages being spoken around us, which Hong-ju hadn’t prepared me for.
“There were less languages heard in 1951 due to the White Australia policy, so the aboriginal ancestors helped my passage into the country” she reminisced. Both of us held one of Rose’s hands and watched over her as she slept.
Later on the three of us were watching Black Butler and we got on the topic of Sebastian’s powers as a demon. His true form is rarely seen and relies on silverware as his weapon compared to our own that we were trained to use.
Hong-ju could match his strength, with Rose using her ability to summon different weapons. Yeon would be defending and protecting me at the same time because my blood is the key to healing any serious injuries.
“Lydia asked me to pass on some news you will like. She has taken you off bed rest, so we can start to retrain your powers.” I got the feeling she had been restless by the way her face lit up at the news.
There was a clear difference between the version I met on the 28th July 2023 to now. My observations were interrupted by my phone ringing and I was surprised to see Ji-ah’s face.
Mia
I was shelving the returned books and in my peripheral vision, I saw Rose lying on the couch in the seating area. Lydia was sitting in a nearby arm chair reading out loud from a book. It was chapter 13 from The Secret Garden titled ‘I Am Colin’, I smiled to myself knowing the previous visions I’d had about her future.
It was well known around the branch how much she hated truly resting, so the enforced days off between training was hard for her to accept. The library was a place in the past where she had found comfort. Midway through the chapter Lydia stopped, placing down the book she fixed the two blankets covering Rose.
She resumed the story telling and I focused on my task of shelving books, till my hand brushed a book triggering a premonition.
(A young man with wavy brown hair was working at the desk when a reaper asked for information about roses and he replied to her request with an english accent.) Taking a few breaths to calm myself I committed the vision to my long term memory.
My visions didn’t come with a time frame of when they would occur, so saving them to the right section allowed me to recall them at will. There was one member of the library staff with this accent, I was curious as to why I got a vision with him in it. I knew worrying about it wouldn’t make it come true any faster.
Once the shelving was done I saw Rose was knocked out, I shared a look with Lydia “I feel like you have done this before.” She led me towards the shelves and explained in a soft spoken tone, “this was the only way to get her to rest her mind and body between jobs.”
I started on a few circulation tasks while Lydia read the rest of the secret garden silently with the crackling fire, page turning and my click clack typing providing the right sounds for sleep.
Freyja
My team was out collecting the departed spirits, when code purple popped up in the team leader and department heads Group chat. It had been 60 years since I’d seen this particular code, so I left my second in command in charge.
Normally I wouldn’t respond to these, this was an exception due to their status. This was a rare occurrence for the Australian branch. I looked around the room to catch a worried look on Lydia’s face, I tried to ignore it while we were informed of the known facts.
When the meeting ended, Matilda asked for my team’s help. She used to be my manager until the late 1950’s before I transferred to the reaping department. My demon hunting skills allowed me to be a unique reaper.
My team was trained in the same way as the demon hunters so they were given the troublesome souls. She knew we could gather information on the demon mafia without attracting attention. Through the grapevine I’d heard Hong-ju had returned to guard Lady Roseia, I wondered how close a relationship she had with the well known hunter.
We were kept busy until the eighth of April, I spotted her leaving the training room with Bruce and another man. I called out “Hong-ju”, she turned around and froze while she worked out who I was. It was good to catch up with my former roommate over a cup of tea and Tim tams.
Bruce
I have known Rose since she was 18, so this has allowed me to see her as a daughter. She was sitting in front of the fireplace with a blanket over her legs. The book was placed on the arm rest, when she spotted me walking over.
The smile on her face told me she had improved since the last time I saw her. All the team leaders and department heads had been informed by the ancestor spirits in mid January. Her energy covered her skin, which was the first time in 236 years I’d seen this sight.
The room got blurry without warning, I was comforted by her warm arms, with Lydia watching from the kitchen. My nose detected a familiar smell of large shell pasta and sauce, which made my mouth water. “Dinner is ready”, I held my left elbow to her and waited till she was stable before we slowly headed to the table.
The meal was the right way to get caught up with my daughter and work out her training schedule to strengthen her control.
It was hard to watch her eating and occasionally wincing, this told me the physical pain was carried over to her spirit. Lydia and I exchanged eye contact knowing only time would heal the pain she was feeling.
A few days later during a rest in one of our training sessions, I thought back to the plan made by Lydia and I. In the third week of her stay in Melbourne, we would focus on increasing the length of time she can bear weight without a mobility aid.
My hope was to help her both parts of her body to regain full control of her abilities by adding experiences to her mind palace. This will help her to know what the normal sensations should feel like when walking and standing.
I had trained as a physical therapist, so I knew the exercises she needed at this part of her physical rehabilitation. I knew from experience how long it took for Rose to get frustrated, so I tried to make it fun in order to negate the stress she was feeling.
The saying no pain no gain came to mind but It was hard to watch her in pain. By the seventh of April her physical strength and stamina was strong enough to regain full control over her increased power.
Rose walked in with a level of confidence I hadn’t seen since 1788, even with her walking stick. The combat meditation required her to be relaxed, so I waited until she was ready to start.
To contain her power to the training room, I activated the markings on the walls. The two of us moved to the centre, while Cheon Moo-young, Ryu Hong-ju and Lydia sat off the side. I knew about her niece from one of Mia’s visions and how this would be useful to control her ability.
She knew the basics of this form from when she started training with me, but it had been quite a while so I expected her to be slightly rusty. Rose held a wooden sword while in full fox mode and her task was to use all her senses to block my hits.
Her mind needed to focus on drawing her power into a small object helping to control how much power is released. My aim before she reunited with her physical body was for her to keep her power in the chosen object every time I gently hit her sword.
I ended up hitting her more when she kept anticipating my moves and catching the air instead of my sword. She had a better success rate when she waited and listened for my movements. With my sight I was able to see when her power flared from her skin.
After three rounds we stopped for her brain to have a small break. Lydia came over with a plate of Vegemite sandwiches and a smile broke through the tired expression on Rose’s face. A small giggle escaped my mouth causing everyone to stare at me.
“You haven’t changed when it comes to Vegemite sandwiches”, it was always fun making everyone jump out of their skin. No one expected it from “the demon trainer.” For the next few rounds I had Moo-young watch carefully how her energy changed as she focused.
By the end of the first session I was happy with my daughter’s progress and I knew she’d be worn out. Lydia took her home while I put Moo-young and Hong-ju through their paces.
The next day I went to their place, Lydia greeted me with a hug “she’s awake”. My ears caught pages being turned, so I headed into her bedroom. “How ya feelin” and she gave me a mumbled ”off”.
Her sluggish movements along with her faraway expression told me I’d pushed her too much. I engulfed her in a hug as my way of saying sorry, “I’ll get Lydia to keep an eye on your energy levels, so for now take it easy.”
She smiled back at me, “have you had-” and I was disrupted by a grumble coming from her stomach. We broke into giggles and I saw her mood slightly lift. “Vegemite toasties with plenty of butter or dark chocolate?”
She tilted her and after a minute came “both”, “coming right up relax and I will be back with them.” It didn’t take long for both toasties to be ready with Lydia and I working together. I was surprised with a plate of my own toasties, “your favourite chicken and mayo.”
The colouring in her face returned as I walked in with our plates, she didn’t wait for me to dig in. I watched her energy move closer to her body with each happy bite, so I dug into my toasties.
After our lunch we opened the chocolate, “please let me know if you need a rest during training. I’m used to your old levels instead of your current ones.” “within reason please treat me like you did during sessions in my pre cursed days.” For the rest of the afternoon we watched a few episodes of black butler until dinner time.
the World Acording to Rose 
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