Chapter 10

Summer 24, 2003

The Fireworks Festival is going to be held today. On this day, the pyrotechnic twins Kassey and Patrick show off their skills by firing fireworks for the local towns. Everyone in Forget-Me-Not Valley waits at the beach and talks until the fireworks display starts. The fireworks can be seen for miles away, even residents of Mineral Town and Sunny Island awaits by their beaches to see the fireworks on this day from the valley.

Yuki normally hangs out with the five girls on this day. Now that he has Choco, the others feel that he should spend time with her as a small family. It is now 8:00pm, one hour away from watching the colorful fireworks. Yuki waits patiently for the fireworks to begin, but Choco is not as patient as her father. Because Choco gets bored very easily, she becomes restless and jumpy.

“Daddy, we've been here for three hours already, when are the fireworks gonna start?” whined Choco while tugging on her father's shirt.

“In another hour, they are still getting things ready. Why don't you hang out with Kate and Hugh?” asked Yuki.

“They are spending time with their mommies and daddies.” said Choco. “Can't you do anything to hurry it up?”

Yuki shakes his head no, Choco then crosses her arms and pouts. All of the adults are talking about things that Choco doesn’t understand, and the other younger children are with their own families. She looks around to see if she could find something that could keep her busy until the fireworks starts. She looks to the east, and notices something happening. Some sparks and lights coming from deep in the forest on a hill.

Choco can not take the boredom any longer and wishes to see what is gong on in the forest. She walks up to Yuki and asks, “Daddy, I need to use the bathroom. Can I go back home for a minute?”

Yuki nods and says, “Fine, but make sure you come back soon.” Choco then skips off back home, but as soon as she notices that she is out of view, she runs into the forest to see what is going on.

Back in the hut, the Witch Princess walks out of her bathroom after taking a shower. She has two towels, one wrapped around her body and the other one drying her blond hair. Since everyone is at the beach, she feels that it's a good time to sleep in early. She sometimes has trouble sleeping because of Lumina practicing her piano at night. As she walks around the hut, she wonders what is happening in the Valley, especially with Choco running around.

She walks up to the crystal ball, and places her hand on it. The ball glows and she sees Choco walking through the forest. “What is that girl doing?” asked the Witch Princess as she puts on her purple tunic. Rather than going to sleep, she decides to stay up and watch her for a while.

Deep in the forest, Kassey and Patrick are building a huge stand for the rocket pipes. The pipes are pointing up so that the fireworks would shoot up into the air safely. Patrick wipes the sweat off his forehead and says, “Whew! We are finally done building the stand for this year's Fireworks Festival. This is going to be quite a show, these are going to be our best rockets that we’ve ever made!”

Kassey shakes the stand, and notices that it is slightly unstable. “I don't know. You think this is safe? What if this thing fell over?”

Patrick walks over to Kassey, and nudges him, “Don't worry so much. The rockets are shooting up, so there shouldn't be any reason this thing would tip over. Besides, we are pyrotechnics not metal smiths. If Cody was here, he could have helped us, but he's at home with the flu.” Patrick walks off and continues, “You coming brother? I want to go chat with the others before we light this candle!”

Kassey checks the stand once again, and feels that Patrick may be right. He catches up to his brother and says, “Hey Pat! You know, Lumina is looking pretty fine these days!”

“I agree with you brother!” said Patrick. “But Lumina always did look pretty, but these days, she's even more gorgeous than she was before!”

After leaving the site, Choco finally arrives at the scene. She takes a look around to see if anyone is there. She does find the large platform with the pipes loaded with rockets for the Fireworks Festival. She circles around the large platform looking up at the tubes where the fireworks will be shot out of. Not too long after, she finds a long fuse and a box of matches resting on a table.

“Wow, this must be where they light the fireworks! But no wonder they never started, nobody is here to light them.” Choco then grabs the box of matches and lights a match. “Well, if nobody is here, then I'll do it myself!”

Choco lights the end of the fuse, and watches it sparkle for a moment. She doesn't want to miss the fireworks, so she begins to run back towards the beach. But she is looking back at the fuse as she runs and does not pay attention where she is going. She crashes into one of the legs of the platform and falls to the ground. The stand wobbles dangerously. The immense weight causes the platform to collapse on it's side. The tubes are no longer pointing to the air, now they are pointing to the west. The direction where the beach is, and all the residents of Forget-Me-Not Valley are waiting.

Choco panics, and tries to move the stand. However, she is too small and the structure weighs far too much for her to move. She then tries to put out the fuse. But no matter what she tries, the fuse continues to burn. The only thing she could do is stand there and watch helplessly unable to do anything.

“Oh crap!” panicked the Witch Princess. She then covers her eyes so that she doesn't watch the possible nightmare that is about to happen.

Back at the beach, the residents of the Valley continue to chat unaware what is happening not too far away. Soon enough, Patrick and Kassey arrives at the beach to join the rest of the community. But only moments after they arrive, a rocket flies just over everyone's head. The rocket lands on the other side of the beach on top of a dune. It explodes sending sand flying all over the place.

“What the hell is going on?!” yelled Muffy.

“Incoming!” screamed Patrick pointing at the other rockets that are headed their way.

The villagers panic and start running in random directions. One by one, rockets land on the beach sending sand and sparkling gunpowder flying through the air. Some rockets hit the dock, setting boats and other wooden objects on fire. Any rockets that land in the water are put out safely. Choco ducks and covers, the sound of the rockets are frightening her and she can only imagine what might be happening at the beach.

From Mineral town, everyone waits patiently at their beach for the Fireworks Festival to start unaware of what is going on. Popuri and Kai are together in Moon Mountain sitting close together. Just before they are about to kiss, Popuri notices some odd lights coming from the beaches of Forget-Me-Not Valley. She points out and asks, “What is going on out there?”

Kai grabs some binoculars and watches everyone run around in panic. He can see rockets exploding in the sand sending colorful sparks in random direction. He takes off the binoculars and says, “Call me stupid, but it looks like Forget-Me-Not Valley is at war!”

After a good 20 minutes, the beach quiets down. The villagers regroups and checks for injuries. Everyone is covered in sand and soot, but nobody is hurt. They take a good look around, everything is either destroyed or on fire. As the villagers try to control the fires, Kassey hits Patrick on his head.

“I told you that the stand was too unstable!” yelled Kassey.

Patrick hits him back and yells, “You moron, none of this happened because of the stupid platform!”

Nami hits both of them and yells, “Okay, which one of you idiots lit the fireworks!”

“We didn't light the fireworks when we left, I swear.” said Patrick while rubbing his head.

Kassey counts with his fingers and says, “That's odd, I only counted 49 rockets that were shot. I could have sworn that we loaded 50.”

“The last one was probably a dud.” said Patrick.

Choco checks the stand that she knocked over and pokes the only tube that didn't go off. The tube suddenly fires a rocket sending Choco flying back. As the villagers try to clean up the mess, they fail to notice the rocket flying towards them until it comes very close. When they finally notice the rocket, everyone runs off in different directions again except one person. Lumina stands there watching the rocket come closer directly at her. She is so frightened that she is unable to move like a deer staring at the headlights of a car.

“Lumina! Get out of the way!” screamed Yuki while running to her aid. He is able to push Lumina out of the path of the rocket, but he gets hit instead. The rocket hits Yuki in the back of his shoulder and explodes on contact sending him flying through the air. He lands on the sand, he survives but in severe pain.

Lumina gets up, and looks at Yuki who is holding his arm. His blood can be seen staining the sand below him. She runs up to him yelling his name as loud as she can. The back of his shirt is burnt, a deep wound covered in burnt skin is on his shoulder.

Everyone gathers around Yuki to see if he's okay. Lumina Yells, “Yuki! Please talk to me! Are you going to be okay?”

Yuki struggles to stand, but he can barely move his right arm. He says, “I'll be fine, but are you okay Lumina?”

“Don't worry about me! You're hurt!” yelled Lumina.

Yuki faces the rest of the villagers and asks, “Is everyone else all right!?” Everyone nods. Yuki then faces Patrick and Kassey and asks, “What in the world happened?”

“We don't know.” Said Kassey. “We didn't light the fireworks when we left, they just went off on their own.”

“Where is Choco?” asked Celia.

“Choco went back home not too long before this started. She should be fine.” struggled Yuki.

“Let's go back to the Fireworks platform, they don't just light themselves.” said Patrick.

Patrick and Cassey run into the direction of the platform. Everyone follows them to the site where the fireworks were set up. Lumina helps Yuki walk with the others. He is so slow, but he drags along in the back of the group. In only a short walk, they arrive at the platform. The villagers all gasp as they see Choco still there trembling in fear.

There is a moment of silence before Flora steps forward and asks, “Choco, what happened here?”

Choco finally looks up, and notices that everyone has found her. She already knows that she is in trouble and no excuse could get her out of it. She gets up and tries to explain, “I'm sorry, it was an accident. I just wanted to see some fireworks and-” She gasps as she sees Yuki walk into the scene with Lumina. She quickly notices that he is hurt, and knows that it was her own fault.

Yuki looks back at Choco in shock. “Choco, you did this?” he asked.

Choco continues to tremble, she doesn't know what to tell him. Yuki also doesn't know what to say to her, he is angry, shocked, ashamed, embarrassed, and sad all at once. The only thing he does is walk away from Lumina, and grabs Choco's arm. He then takes her back home where they can just sleep away the disaster. Not a word was spoken the whole trip home.

The Witch Princess finally uncovers her eyes. Using her crystal ball, she checks the status of all the villagers. No fatalities, but she does notice that Yuki is injured. She falls on the floor and sighs in relief. “Wow, that was intense!” said the Witch Princess. “Choco is here to trouble Yuki, not kill him. The last thing I need is to have someone's blood on my hands. Maybe I took things a bit too far? Oh well, as long as he lives until my plan is complete, there is nothing to worry about."