Chapter 11

Summer 25, 2003

Choco wakes up in the morning feeling guilty from what she has done the night before. Last night, she had a nightmare about her father dying in the beach. The nightmare scares her, but she is at least relieved to know that it was only a dream. Yuki may be injured, but not seriously enough where it would threaten his life.

After changing into her usual clothes, she walks out of her bedroom holding Uma-Kun to start the day. But as soon as she walks out, she notices her father sitting at the dining table. There are a lot of paperwork that he is looking through. The look on Yuki's face sends chills down her spine. She has no idea how he is feeling at the moment, but she wishes to avoid it at all costs.

Choco feels that he has yet to notice her, so she tries her best to sneak out of the house. She believes that it would be a good idea to give him some time alone. Just as she is about to touch the handle of the front door, she hears, “Choco, where are you going?” She turns around to see her father looking at her in a very serious and upset way. “Sit down, we have to talk,” said Yuki.

Choco hesitates, but she slowly walks to the table and takes a seat. The bandages around Yuki's right arm, shoulder, and back makes her look down in shame. For a while, there is silence. Not a word are exchanged between them. Yuki is still looking through paperwork, and Choco has yet to find the courage to say anything.

After a while, Choco takes a deep breath and says, “Daddy, are you mad at me?”

Yuki places the paperwork that he is holding down, and looks at Choco for a moment. “No, I am not mad at you.” Choco takes a sigh of relief, but it is too soon to feel relieved. “After all, you did lie to me, put an entire village in danger, completely ruined a festival, caused damage to the beach, hit me with a rocket, completely embarrassed and humiliated me, put the farm in severe debt, and given the word dangerous a whole new meaning.” Yuki slams his hand on the table which makes Choco cringe with fear. “I'm not mad, I'm FURIOUS!!”

Yuki places his hand on the huge stack of papers and says, “Do you have any idea what these are? Complaints from the nearby villages and cities including Mineral Town demanding why was the Fireworks Festival canceled. Not to mention bills for damages to the beach, medical bills for my arm, and I'm also billed for the cost of the rockets you shot!”

Choco sniffles, and tears are building up in her eyes. But Yuki continues. “Choco, why did you lie to me? You told me that you were just going to use the bathroom. But instead, you went off into the woods, and caused the biggest disaster in Forget-Me-Not Valley history! And do you have any idea what you almost did? You could have killed somebody! And since I can't use my right arm for a while, I can't work on the farm. I had to hire Takakura to do the work for me until I get better.”

Choco is trying her hardest not to cry, but Yuki making her feel guilty all over again is not helping. Tears are dripping on her dress as she tries to hold them back. Yuki looks at her and says, “Stop crying already. Crying is not going to make the problem go away. You're not a little kid anymore, you're 10 years old, it's time to grow up already!”

Silence returns to the room for a moment. Yuki becomes frustrated and says, “Aren't you going to say something Choco?”

“I'm sorry daddy. I didn't meant to. . . I'm sorry.” said Choco in a sad and weepy tone.

“Sorry is not going to fix anything.” said Yuki.

Choco can’t hold in her guilt anymore. So she grabs Uma-Kun, and runs off. Just then, Muffy walks in to see how Yuki is doing. Choco runs past her nearly bumping into her. Knowing what Yuki must have done, she walks up to him with a frown on her face.

“Yuki, what happened?” asked Muffy.

Yuki looks at Muffy with an exhausted look on his face and snaps, “What do you think I did? I yelled at her. Isn't every parent supposed to yell at their kid when they did something wrong?”

Muffy becomes upset at Yuki's cold words and yells, “Yuki! Didn't you just see her running off like that! Aren't you going off and look for her?”

“No I'm not!” yelled Yuki. Muffy is shocked to hear those words come out of his mouth in such a careless manner. The entire time she knew him, he is always kind and gentle. But this is the first time she has seen him act this cruel. “Maybe Choco will remember where her mother is, and go back to live with her. Look at me, I am not fit to be a father.”

“If Choco knew where her mother is, don't you think that she would have told you already?” answered Muffy. She takes a deep breath and tries her best to calm down, and continues, “Listen Yuki. I know that you're upset at her and everything, but she is just a little girl. What she did was only an accident, everyone makes mistakes sometime in their life.”

Yuki stares at Muffy awkwardly and says, “Oh really? So, when was the last time you nearly killed your father, and put the lives of an entire village in danger. Maybe it's a girl thing, cause I sure don't remember doing that when I was her age.”

“Yuki! You're not being very fair about this!” yelled Muffy.

“Fair?!” yelled Yuki standing up. “Let me tell you something about fair! I have never in my life touched a woman, and I still end up with a kid! And on top of that, everyone expects me to be a good father! You still call that fair?!”

Yuki's sudden outburst shocks Muffy. Yuki sees how upset he is making her feel, so he takes a deep breath and says, “I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to yell at you, but seriously. I'm no father. I can't even protect a ten year old kid. I'm just a stupid failure.”

Muffy sighs, and walks up to Yuki. She places a hand on his left arm and tries to comfort him. “I understand how you must feel, but-”

“No, you don't.” interrupted Yuki. “If you did, maybe you wouldn't be trying so hard to get me to like you. I'm not a family man, and I'll never will be. I just want to be alone.”

“But, what about Choco. What if she gets lost and comes back?” asked Muffy.

“Let her do what she wants. If she wants to come back, she will. Otherwise, she can just go back home to her mother.”

Yuki's words pierces Muffy’s heart. She once thought Yuki was a great guy who takes responsibility for his actions. But she feels that maybe it's not as true as she believes it to be. Muffy starts to walk out of the house. But just before she reaches the door, she says, “If you don't want Choco anymore, then fine. I'll go find her myself, and she can come live with me. I don't know who her mother is either, and I really don't even care. After all, if she wanted to live with her mother, she wouldn't have come here on her own!”

Muffy then runs off to look for Choco. Yuki just wait in the house in case she came back on her own. At 6:00pm, Choco still does not come home. By this time, Yuki already gives up hope that she will come back at all. Muffy believes that Choco left Forget-Me-Not Valley so she left to the nearby villages and cities to look for her.

Yuki walks into Choco's bedroom. If she isn't coming back home, he feels that he might as well pack her things and send them to her as soon as he learns where she went. Many of her toy's are scattered all over the floor. Like many kids, Choco hates to clean her room. Yuki places all of the toys that are on the floor on the bed where he would just pack them. He reaches under the bed to gather all the toys that have fallen underneath.

After pulling out several toys, Yuki grabs on to something unusual under the bed. He pulls it out and finds a diary. “Hey, Isn't this mine?” asked Yuki. He opens the diary, and sees that the diary is not the one he has been using. But rather, it's the spare he stored in his room in case the one he is using runs out of paper.

He reads the first entry from Summer 16. The part that shocks him the most is the sentence that Choco wrote, “People think that I'm keeping my mommy a secret, but I really can't remember.” Like many people in the valley, Yuki also thought that she has been keeping her mother a secret. He never imagined that Choco may be telling the truth. It makes no sense to him, but if Choco has been keeping it a secret, she would have said that in her diary.

Yuki reads the next entry. It says:

Dear Diary,

Today, daddy promised to buy me chocolates if I promised not to go in his room without telling him anymore. I love chocolates, and Daddy loves chocolates too! Daddy knows how to make the best chocolate stuff like chocolate pancakes, chocolate cake, chocolate cookies, chocolate milkshake, and other chocolate treats. I wanna learn how to make them too! I hope daddy can teach me soon.

Oh, today Hugh gave me a flower as a present. I went home to show daddy my present, and he put it in a little glass cup so that it can live a little longer. But when I went back to Hugh, he didn't look so well. He was a bit dirty, and his eye had a black bruise on it. I wonder what happened to him, he wouldn't tell me. Oh well, I hope he's OK.

Yuki smiles as he reads that entry. He feels bad that Hugh tried to confess his feelings to Choco, but she's not as bright as other kids her age. Rather than reading the rest of the diary, he skips to the latest entry she wrote last night.

Dear Diary,

I did something really bad today. I wanted to watch fireworks with my daddy today, but I was bored of waiting. So I went to tell the people to start the fireworks early so that me and daddy can watch them together. But nobody was there, so I lit the fireworks by myself. But then the big metal thing fell over, and I hurt my daddy. Daddy never said anything, but I know he is mad at me. I wonder if he will hate me now? Maybe he will never forgive me? I don't want daddy to hate me. I didn't want to hurt daddy, I just wanted us to watch the fireworks together. I don't know where mommy is, so I want to be with daddy forever. I don't know what to do.

The blank space in the bottom of the page are still moist. Choco was crying as she wrote that entry. Remembering how he yelled at her earlier that day made him remember a time when he was Choco's age. His mother was yelling at his father who had just lost his job back in the city. They both were unaware that Yuki was watching them argue. The words that were spoken are those that he will never forget.

“How could you lose your job!?” yelled Yuki's mother. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to look for work these days!? What are we going to do about the bills, or food!? Do you want our son to starve?”

“I'm sorry.” said Yuki's father.

“Sorry is not going to fix anything!!” Those words echoed in Yuki's mind for a while. At that moment, Yuki felt guilty that he ever screamed those word to Choco. Choco may be troublesome, but she is not a bad girl.

Yuki drops the diary, and runs out to look for Choco. But the problem is that he has no idea where she went. It has been a long time since she ran off, so there is no measure on how far she could have gone. But Yuki now knows that Choco doesn't know where her mother is, so going home is not an option.

“Let's see, If I was Choco, where would I be?” said Yuki as he randomly walked around the Valley. He then remembers that time when Choco was brushing her teeth and she was doing it the same way Yuki does it. “I may not know Choco very well, but I do know that Choco has very similar habits that I do. Now where would I go at a time like this?”

Yuki remembers a time when his parents were arguing, so he ran off and hid below anything. In forget-Me-Not Valley, there are few places to hide. The only place Yuki could think of is the beach where boats can be found. He knows the odds are against him, but he decides to check anyway.

When he arrives at the beach, all he could see is the huge disaster from yesterday. The smell of burnt wood is still fresh in the air. As he walks around, he sees a few overturned boats that have been abandoned years before Yuki arrived in Forget-Me-Not Valley. As he walks past them, he can hear the crying of a ten year old child under one of them.

He uses his left arm to try to raise the boat. It is much heavier than it really is because he cannot use his right arm to lift. He still is able to lift it high enough to see what's underneath. Just as he thought, he found Choco.

She stops crying as soon as she notices the boat she is hiding under is being lifted. She looks up and sees Yuki looking back at her. “Hey there!” said Yuki. But Choco doesn’t answer. “Can I come in?” asked Yuki. Choco still does not respond, so he lets himself in anyway.

Yuki and Choco are both sitting under the boat. There are holes above them to allow enough light for them to see each other. “Nice hiding spot. When I was your age, I used to hide under things like this when I was sad too.”

Choco rubs the tears off of her eyes and asks, “Daddy, do you hate me?”

“Of course I don't.” answered Yuki. “I know that I yelled at you and everything, but I only did it because I was worried about you.”

“You were worried about me?” asked Choco.

“Of course I was. I know I said that I was mad about the bills and the complaints and everything. But I was mostly angry because I was scared.”

“Scared? Of what? The fireworks?” asked Choco.

“No Choco. It had nothing to do with the rockets. I was scared because you might have gotten hurt out there. Playing with fireworks is really dangerous, and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself in you were the one who got hurt. I was glad that you are safe; but at the same time, I was scared because I felt that I could have done something to prevent what happened yesterday. Choco, I'm really sorry if I hurt your feelings when I yelled at you.”

“But daddy, I thought that-”

“Never mind what I said. I shouldn't have said that back at home. You did apologize to me, but instead I thew it back at your face.”

Yuki's arm is starting to bother him. Choco notices it, so she sits closer to Yuki and says, “Daddy, I'm sorry about your arm. I promise not to do it again.”

“It's okay. Doctor hardy says I can go back to work in about a week or two.” Yuki pushes the boat off of them, and takes Choco by the hand. “Let's go home. I'll make you a chocolate milkshake.”

Choco nods happily, and they both return home. After Yuki serves the milkshake, he calls Griffin to find out where Muffy is. Griffin gives Yuki a number where he can reach Muffy. He then calls her and tells her that he has found Choco. Muffy yells at him as loud as she can, Even Choco can hear her from where she is sitting.

“Yes, yes Muffy, I think I do have an idea how worried you were. . . Don't worry, she is at home with me having a drink. . . Okay fine, I'll make this up to you, how about I make you an apple pie? You would like that, right? . . . A date? Come on, we're going to get into that again? . . . Okay fine, I'll go on one date with you, are you happy now? . . . Okay, call me when you get home, bye!”

Yuki hangs up the phone and walks up to Choco. “I just finished talking to Muffy, guess where she is? She’s at Sunshine Island looking for you.”

“Really?” asked Choco.

“You may not know it, but you are a very popular girl Choco. Not just Muffy, but everyone in the valley cares about you very much!” said Yuki. He then rubs the top of her head, “now finish your shake, and go to bed. Since I can't work for a while, we can spend a lot of time getting to know each other. Okay?”

“Okay!” cheered Choco. She then quickly finishes off her shake, and tucks herself into bed hardly able to wait for the next day to come.

The Witch Princess smiles after watching the event between Yuki and Choco. “Looks like they made up. Good! It works perfectly into my plan. The more he cares about her, the more miserable he'll become in the end. Enjoy your little peace Yuki, it may not last very long!” The Witch Princess then lets out a wicked laugh. What sort of plan does she have in store for Yuki and Choco?