Chapter 1

Winter 24, 2002

In a small village resting in a valley, a small group of people lives peacefully far away from the city life. Each villager of the small community known as Forget-Me-Not Valley had a reasons for moving to such a remote and quiet place. Most of them lost a member of their family. Others wished to start their lives over from scratch. And the rest only wish to finally know what peace was compared to the hectic lifestyle of the city.

A young man named Yuki lives in this small village of Forget-Me-Not Valley. About three years ago, Yuki's father died while working on his farm. Yuki decided to take over his father's farm to live his life peacefully. Several years before the passing of his father, he also lost his mother due to an illness. He has no other living relatives, so he lived alone in his farm. Even so, he lives in the farm happily.

Five young and beautiful girls also lives in Forget-Me-Not valley. Celia, a quiet brunette that works in a farm close to Yuki's. Muffy, a flirtatious blond barmaid who constantly wishes to be married. Nami, a red headed traveler looking for a home. Lumina, a brunette pianist who lives in a huge mansion. And Flora, an archaeologist full of dreams and hope. What does each of these girls have in common? They all have a huge crush on Yuki!

Besides the other local villagers, there is one other woman who lives in the shadows of Forget-Me-Not Valley. A woman with dirty blond hair that lives in a small hut next to a mansion where Lumina lives. Unlike the rest of the villagers, this girl wears an old cape and shoes made of animal skins, a purple tunic that has been out of fashion for centuries, and her garments were decorated with pouches and bones. Even though she is quite unique, only one person in the valley knew that she lives there.

This odd woman who lives in a small hut with nothing but books and a cauldron is only known as the Witch Princess. She spends her days hiding away in the hut and only leaves at night collecting wild herbs and food. Despite her name, she does not practice witchcraft. The Witch Princess studies a special form of science known as Alchemy most people believe to be magic. Using this forbidden and mostly forgotten technique, she spends her days giving people a hard time using her magic from inside her hut. She typically is not a happy person, and she becomes upset when she sees happy people.

On Christmas Eve, the Witch Princess looks back at all the misery that she has brought to the valley over the past year. She waves her arms over her crystal ball and stares into it. In her ball, she can see the many tragic events that she herself created using her “black magic”. Without guilt or shame, the Witch Princess smiles with pride for the things that she had done.

"Poor harvest, heart break, illnesses, sadness, loneliness. I love it when I see someone suffer from my magic. It gives me the feeling that I've accomplished something. These guinea pigs run to Forget-Me-Not Valley to forget their problems, but they don't realize that they're only falling into my spider web." As the images fade one by one, the mood of the Witch Princess changes from jolly to aggravated when she sees the face of the local farmer of Forget-Me-Not Valley. "It's him! The only person in the valley that I cannot make unhappy! Yuki!"

Out of frustration, the Witch Princess paces around the hut thinking about what she has done in the past to make Yuki unhappy. "I don't get it! Nothing seems to get that man down! I've ruined his harvest countless times, but he fixes them easily. I made his animals sick, he just treats them. I made him sick, the other women makes him feel better. He's single and alone, but he seems pretty happy that way." She slams her left fist against her right palm, the more she thought about it, the angrier she feels. "For hell’s sake, his father died in that farm!! You would think that working on that farm would make him sad, but no! He's too happy and proud."

After pacing around the hut, she checks the time, it is now 9:30 PM. The Witch Princess stretches her arms, and yawns. "All this brooding has made me very tired. I don't need to go out foraging tonight, so I think I'll sleep early tonight."

The Witch Princess takes off her cape, and throws it on a nearby chair. After taking off her shoes, she throws herself on her bed, and closes her eyes. It wasn't long until loud music wakes her up again. She covered her ears as she yells, "What the hell? Why is the mansion playing that racket in the middle of the night!?" She jumps out of bed, and checks the calendar. She slaps herself in the forehead after realizing the date. "Oh damn, I forgot. It's Christmas Eve. They're having their annual Christmas party in Romana's Mansion. Such a pointless holiday, these people are not even Christians. No wonder I've been in a bad mood all day, people are unusually happy and jolly during the holiday season. And I bet 'that man' is with them too."

Seeing that sleeping is pointless, she grabs her cape and shoes, and puts them back on. After getting dressed, she snapped her fingers and teleports herself outside the hut. The air is cold, and the roads are covered in three inches of snow. She sneaks up to a nearby window to spy on what were the locals doing. Inside the mansion, the villagers of Forget-Me-Not Valley were all having fun celebrating Christmas with their friends. All the happy faces made the Witch Princess feel even more annoyed than before. "Well, it looks like everyone is having fun tonight." said the Witch Princess as she clenches her fist as tightly as possible. She notices Yuki sitting in the couch surrounded by the five single women. They all were telling jokes and laughing cheerfully. "I bet that guy is the ring leader of this merry party. Before he came around, people were never this happy and cheerful."

The Witch Princess could no longer control her anger, so she steps away from the window, and started stamping her feet in anger against the snow. "That's it! I've had it with that guy! I swear I'm going to make him the most miserable and unhappy person in the valley. But how. . ."

The Witch Princess returns to the window. Yuki walks away to the kitchen to deliver some empty dishes. After a moment, the girls starts to act a bit strange. Lumina, the brunette pianist was being pushed into the kitchen by the other four girls. Behind her back was a small box with white wrapping, and a red ribbon. The Witch Princess becomes curious, and decides to see what is going on.

She snaps her fingers, and teleports herself in the kitchen. She saw Yuki, so she hides behind the refrigerator. He places the dishes in the sink neatly, Then Lumina walks in obviously nervous. They both greet each other casually, then she pulls out the gift from behind her back, and presents it to him.

"Here you go Yuki, it's a Christmas present!" said Lumina in a shy and bashful manner. Yuki accepts her gift, and opens it quickly. He smiles as he pulls out several pieces of chocolate out of the box.

"Wow, it's a box of gourmet chocolates! Thank you very much Lumina!" shouted Yuki cheerfully. The Witch Princess became quite interested in his love for chocolates.

As Yuki eats some of the chocolates in the gift box, Lumina stares at the floor and blushes. "Umm. . . Yuki? It's been three years since you came to live in Forget-Me-Not Valley. I was wondering. . . If we could. . . You know. . . Go out on a date sometime."

Yuki stops eating his chocolates, and sighs. "Lumina, I think you're a great girl and everything. But, I'm not ready to be in a relationship yet. I'm sorry."

Lumina looks up into Yuki's eyes, and smiles. "I understand. But if you ever change your mind, I'll be waiting." Lumina takes a step back, and says, "The others are probably waiting for me. I should be heading back now. Oh! Muffy said that if you could get the bottle of wine out for everyone. It's in the top right cabinet."

Lumina then leaves the kitchen, and returns to the main hall where everyone is partying. The Witch Princess teleports herself into the main hall, hiding behind some plants. Lumina Joins Muffy, Celia, Nami, and Flora in the party. By the disappointed look in Lumina's face, they all knew what happened.

"Let me guess, he turned you down, didn't he?" asked Celia. Lumina nods.

"Don't let it get you down!" yelled Flora. "That guy turns everyone down."

"The rest of us must have been turned down at least twice already. Join the club!" admits Muffy while drinking a glass of wine.

"Yeah, Muffy was turned down about thirteen times already!" commented Nami while drinking a mug of beer.

"Who asked you to count!?" cried Muffy pointing a finger at Nami.

"Hey, don't get upset at me." said Nami. "But I do wonder about him. Three years has passed since he came to live here. But he still wants to stay single. Sometimes I wonder if he roots for the same team."

"Of course not." said Muffy full of confidence. "He's just being stubborn, that's all. Sooner or later his male hormones will kick in. He'll start to feel lonely, that's when he'll fall for my trap. Just you wait Yuki, I'll make you mine soon enough!"

"You sound pretty cocky for a 29 year old woman who still isn't married yet!" said Nami. Muffy normally becomes upset at comments like that, but since they were partying, everyone laughs instead.

After overhearing their conversation, the Witch Princess Vanishes from the Mansion. She teleports herself into Yuki's house looking for n idea. "There has to be something here that I can use to bring down that farmer. No human chooses to remain single without a really good reason."

The Witch Princess walks into his bedroom, and notices a notebook on a small table next to his bed. She quickly grabs it, and starts flipping through the pages looking for answers. She stops at an early entry where Muffy first confessed her feelings to Yuki about two years ago. Yuki wrote his deepest and most personal thoughts about why he decided to remain single on that page. She sneers, then closes the diary, and places it back where she found it.

"How careless. Leaving your diary out for the whole world to see. I shall finally make you suffer Yuki, just you wait!" The Witch Princess laughs, then vanishes from Yuki's house. She returns to her hut where she starts to scan through the library looking for a specific book. Moments later, she grabs a book titled "Human Alchemy". She flips through the pages until she finds what she's looking for.

"Perfect! I knew he would have written the recipe in this book. Now to collect the ingredients, and prepare the ritual!"

Several Hours later, Yuki finally arrives at his house. He throws himself on his bed, and checks the time, it is now 11:49 PM. "Wow, that party was a lot of fun. But I need to wake up pretty early tomorrow. Even a farmer can't take off on Christmas day." Yuki takes off his blue hat, and throws the covers over himself. Within seconds, he falls asleep.

As Yuki sleeps, the Witch Princess suddenly appears in his house again. This time, she has a pair of shears in her hand. She slowly walks up to Yuki so that she doesn't wake him. Then she grabs a lock of his hair, and snips it off his head quietly. Finally she pulls a tiny glass vial from her pocket, and puts Yuki's hair inside. She smiles as she vanishes back into her hut.

All the preparations were already made in the hut. The Witch Princess uses chalk to draw a huge circle with a pentagram. She then places a pot of boiling water in the middle of the star shaped pentagram. She grabs all the ingredients from a nearby table, and starts to pour them in one by one.

"Let's see. . . 65% water, 24% carbon, 8% lime, 2% phosphorus, 1% salt, and a hint of sulfur, iron, fluorine, and silicone. The basic building blocks of the human body." The Witch Princess pulls out the small vial with Yuki's hair in it. "Now for the final ingredient, some D.N.A."

She drops the vial into the mixture. Holding the book in her left hand, she stretches her right hand over the mixture, and read the words written in an ancient language out loud. The pentagram shines brightly, and a chemical reaction occurs in the pot. There is a faint green glow after the reaction was done. Finally, the Witch Princess grabs a pair of tongs, and pulls out a small amber colored crystal from the pot. She smiles when she realizes that her spell actually worked.

She picks up the small pot carrying the glowing green liquid, and holds it over her head. "It's time for the final step of my genius plan. Yuki, you will regret the day you arrived at Forget-Me-Not Valley!" She laughs maniacally as hard as she can. She is about to give Yuki a Christmas present he will never forget.

Spring 5, 2003

New Years had already passed, Yuki is now praying over a small grave where his father rests in peace. He left out a few sticks of incense on the grave stone as he prays. He opens his eyes and says, "Father, it's been three years since you've passed on to the next life. The farm is doing well these days, so there's no need for you to worry about anything. Please rest well, and take care of mom in heaven."

After he's done praying, he grabs his rucksack, and turns around to go back to the farm. But he finds a child who is standing about 20 feet behind him as he prayed. The little girl wore a Sunday hat that hid her face from Yuki's view. She had a yellow frilly dress with thin orange stripes that crossed in a plaid-like pattern, cream pants, and matching orange/cream sneakers. Yuki has never seen this girl before, the only other girls around her age were Kate who lived close to his farm, and May from Mineral Town.

Yuki walked up to her, and said, "Hey there, are you lost? Do you live here? Where are your parents?"

The little girl looked up into Yuki's eyes. He was shocked as soon as he saw the girl's face. The little girl resembles his mother that passed away many years ago from an illness. She had large brown eyes, light brown thin straight hair, and smooth cheekbones. The same features Yuki inherited from his mother. Yuki was mesmerized at how much she resembled his mother.

The little girl smiled, and yelled, "Daddy?!"

Hearing that word come out of her mouth sent a rush of panic through Yuki's spine. He took a few steps back, and asked, "W-W-What did you call me?"

The little girl's face beamed cheerfully. She ran to Yuki, and hugged him tightly. "Daddy, I've found you!"

Yuki does not believe what this girl is telling him. He knows that he has no children, but this girl claims to be his child. Without thinking it through, he takes her to his home in the farm where he could ask her some questions. Yuki and the child sits in the living room table. He stares at the child as she helps herself to some lemonade. Trying to make sense out of the situation, he takes a deep breath and starts the interrogation.

"So, let me get this straight. You're name is Choco, you're 10 years old, and I'm supposed to be your father?" Choco nods. Yuki clears his throat, and tries his hardest to explain the situation to her. "Listen to me Choco, Umm. . . I think there is some sort of mistake. I just turned 22 years old today. You are just too old to be my daughter. In fact, you are old enough to be my younger sister!"

Choco shakes her head no. "You are definitely my daddy."

Yuki places his hand on his forehead, and tries to think. "Okay, listen to me. I'm not sure if they've taught you the whole deal with the birds and the bees in school yet, but let me tell you something. In order for a man and a woman to have children, they need to do 'stuff' with one another. The thing is that I've never done anything with a woman yet, so there's no possible way I could have any children. In other words, I'm a virgin. Do you understand?"

"But daddy, we used to go to the park together with mommy all the time. We used to sit by the tree, and eat cake together. Don't you remember?"

Yuki sits there with a confused look on his face. He knows for a fact that events like that has never happened to him before. He lets out a deep sigh, and says, "I tell you what, why don't you tell me who your mother is? I would like to ask her a few questions."

She stares into space thinking about an answer, she remains silent for several minutes. Yuki stares at her with a bead of sweat on his temple. Choco finally answers, "Umm. . . I don't remember who mommy is. But I do remember my daddy's face!"

Yuki suddenly busts a blood vessel. He stands up quickly, and yells to the top of his lungs, "OKAY, STOP SCREWING AROUND WITH ME KID!!!"

Suddenly, tears start to develop in Choco's eyes. Her lower lip trembles, she clutches her fists, and then she cries as hard as she possibly could. The crying is so loud, that it pierces Yuki's ears, not even covering them with his hands were helping. "Hey, hey, stop crying! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell, I was just upset!" Yelled Yuki trying his best to calm the wailing child.

She stops crying for a moment to say, "But daddy, you really scared me!" She whimpers a bit more before continuing, "I just wanted to see you again, but you're already yelling at me!" She then continues to cry loudly again.

Yuki couldn't stand the crying anymore, so he runs to the kitchen to look for something to give to calm her. "Let's see, kids love candy. Maybe if I give her some, she'll stop crying." he thought as he searches his cupboards. Soon enough he found his stash of chocolates. He grabs a chocolate bar, and runs back to the frantic little girl. "Hey Choco, you want some chocolate?! I'll give you some if you stop crying, "said Yuki. Choco opens her eyes, and calms down as soon as she sees the chocolate bar in his hand. She snatches it, and eats it gleefully. Yuki falls on his chair in relief now that the crying has stopped before she breaks a window or gets anyone’s attention.

"Okay, let's start over." Yuki clears his throat before he continues with the questions. "If you don't know who's your mother, how did you get here?"

"I got here all by myself, I'm a big girl now!"

"Okay. . . I can't believe they let a child ride the boat all by themselves these days. Anyways, where were you born?" asked Yuki.

"I was born in the city of Atland!"

Yuki lost his breath when he heard her say that. "That's my hometown, no way, could she really be. . ." thought Yuki. He then slaps himself a few times after realizing the situation. "Get a hold of yourself Yuki. This must be some sort of coincidence. There is no way that this kid is your daughter. Keep it together, we'll figure something out." Yuki clears his throat once again, "Okay, when were you born?"

"Winter 25th!" Choco announced.

"You were born on the same day as Christmas? You're some gift. . ." Yuki dropped his head on the table, and thought for a minute.

"Daddy, are you OK? Do you want some chocolate?" asked Choco.

"No, I just have a headache. But more importantly, what am I going to do about you?"

"Can't I stay with you?"

"Absolutely not! If anyone finds out about you, things are going to turn ugly."

Suddenly, the front door bursts open, and the entire village marches in yelling, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY YUKI!!!"

Everyone expected Yuki to be very surprised. But instead, they find him trembling in fear. They also noticed Choco sitting on the other side of the table. There is an awkward silence. Curious to know what’s going on, Muffy, Nami, Lumina, Celia, and Flora move to the front. Yuki is trying to not pass out from shock as the village takes in what is going on.

"Oh. . . My. . .God! She’s so cute!” Muffy yells excitedly, She runs to Choco cheerfully, and picks her up. She then hugs her like a child hugs a doll. “You are just soooo cute!" Continues Muffy rubbing her cheeks against Choco's. "You're so soft and cuddly, I could just eat you up!"

Everyone stares at Muffy embracing Choco, while Yuki tries his hardest not to wet himself. Nami finally breaks the silence by asking the question Yuki feared the most, "So, who's the kid? You're little sister?"

"Well. . . You see. . . Umm. . . It's kind of hard to explain. . ." said Yuki trying hard to find the right words to explain.

"He's my daddy!" yelled Choco. The entire village gasps while Muffy, Nami, Lumina, Celia, and Flora nearly faint in shock. They all stare at Yuki with the most odd and judging glare he had ever seen before.