Chapter 2

Spring 5, 2003 (Continued from Chapter 1)

The entire Forget-Me-Not population stood in Yuki's house staring oddly at him after Choco declared that she is Yuki's daughter. The Witch Princess sits from inside the hut watching the events unfold through her crystal ball. Yuki stands still trying his best to come up with a proper explanation for what's going on.

"Yuki, she just said you were her father! What's going on!?" cried Lumina breaking the silence.

"Are you hiding something from us?" asked Takakura who lives next door.

"Of course not!" yelled Yuki in a panic. "Don't believe what she says, she's crazy!"

"But daddy. . . That's so mean. . ," whined Choco who was still being carried by Muffy.

Muffy places Choco on the floor, and walks up to Yuki. She then grabs a pinch full of Yuki's hair, and plucks it from his head. "OWW!!! What was that for!?" complained Yuki. She ignores him and walks back to Choco with the hair sample. She lightly grabs Choco's short ponytail, and starts to compare Yuki's hair with Choco's.

"It's the same. The color and texture are exactly the same." Muffy then places her hand on Choco's cheeks, and looks at her directly in the eyes. "She has your eyes, and her cheek bones feels the same yours, I should know. If this is not your child, this is some odd coincidence."

"Oh come on!" complained Yuki. "How can you even believe that this is my daughter? Can't you tell that she's too old? I would have to be like 12 years old when she was born!"

"Well, some people do mature rather quickly." said Flora. Everyone nods in agreement.

"And even though teenage parents are uncommon, it still does happen." said Nami. Everyone nods in agreement twice.

"How can you all say that! Care to explain how do I have children if I'm a virgin!?" Everyone leers awkwardly at Yuki. "Oh, you think I've been lying then?" Everyone nods once again. "For what reason do I have to lie to everyone?" Everyone turns their gaze at Choco. From how they are acting, Yuki feels that the other villagers assume that he knew that he was a father, but he had been hiding it from all of them the whole time he lived in Forget-Me-Not Valley.

Yuki became frustrated with the situation, so he grabbed Choco's arm, and he leaves the farm with her in tow. All the other villagers followed them curiously. "Where are we going daddy?" asked Choco.

"Stop calling me that already. We are going to Doctor Hardy's office to have a paternity test. We will prove once and for all that you are not my kid!"

Everyone arrives at the doctor's office, and Yuki explains the situation to Hardy. After hearing the whole story, Doctor Hardy takes a blood sample from both Yuki and Choco, and then leaves to run the paternity test. Everyone waits for hours, but they all refuse to leave until they all get an answer. As Yuki waits, he feels that all the villagers were staring and judging him. He could hear the others whispering, "I can't believe he's a father." "How could he not know that he has a daughter somewhere?" "I wonder who's the mother?" "And all this time, I thought he was a pure soul." "What an animal."

Everyone quiets down once Doctor Hardy returns with the results in his hands. He sits on his desk looking at Yuki directly in the eye. He opens up the folder, and says, "sorry about the long wait. But considering that I don't have the proper equipment to perform the test here, I had to travel all the way to Mineral Town to get the results. Normally I would get a result in a few days, but considering the situation, Trent did me a favor and rushed the results. Please note that these tests are 99.8% accurate, so if the results are not to your liking-"

"Just get on with it!!" yelled Yuki.

"All right fine." Doctor Hardy clears his throat and says, "According to the test result, you are indeed Choco's father."

"See, what did I tell you! I'm-" Yuki was sure that the test would come out negative, so he had his "I told you so" speech ready. It takes him a few seconds to realize that the test came out positive. "What did you say?" Yuki asked nervously.

Doctor Hardy passes Yuki the test results and says, "Half your DNA matches Choco. Go ahead and read it for yourself."

Yuki snatches the folder with the test results, and just like the doctor said, he is Choco's father. "But that's impossible! How can I be her father? I'm not old enough to have a 10-year old daughter!"

"Well, you probably had a lustful evening with the babysitter when you were younger." said Doctor Hardy sarcastically.

"An event like that never happened! Besides, I am still a virgin! Care to explain how can virgins have children?"

Doctor Hardy stares at Yuki. Then he takes a look at Choco, and says, "Even though you say that, she's right there. Children do not come out of thin air, you know."

Yuki rubs his head trying to relieve an instant headache. After taking a deep sigh, he tells the doctor, "Well then please explain this:" Yuki turns to Choco, and tells her, "Choco, please tell the doctor who your mother is."

Everyone waits patiently for an answer. Choco tries her best to remember who is her mother, but she cannot come up with an answer, "I. . . I don't know. I don't remember who mommy is."

Everyone is confused by her answer. After mumbling to one another for a moment, the Doctor decides to ask her some questions. "Did you used to live with your mother?" Choco nods. "How long ago?" She shakes her head leaving the impression that she doesn't remember. "What can you tell us about you mother? Anything would be fine."

Choco looks down. Trying to think about her mother so hard made her feel sad and tears are starting to develop in her eyes. "I. . . I can't remember anything about mommy. I just came here to see my daddy. I haven't seen him in such a long time, I was happy when I finally found him. But daddy doesn't remember me or mommy."

All the villagers start to feel sad over Choco's story. Ignoring all the odd details of the situation, everyone leers angrily at Yuki. "What? Why is everyone looking at me like that? I didn’t do anything, I swear!"

Muffy walks up to him, and grabs him by the collar. "Now you listen to me! I really don't care whether you remember having kids or not! The only thing I know is that she's here now!"

"But. . ." whined Yuki.

"No buts!" yelled Muffy. "You are going to take care of this child like a good father. Am I making myself clear!?"

Yuki looks around, he notices that the rest of the village feels the same way as Muffy did. Yuki doesn't want to accept responsibility of a child that shouldn't belong to him, but he has no choice in the matter. Either he accepts responsibility, or the villagers may not forgive him.

"Okay, fine. I'll take care of Choco. But if I can find proof that she really isn't my daughter, I'll send her back to where she came from. Fair enough?"

Everybody nods, but they all are sure that it is clearly impossible to prove that Choco is not Yuki's child. After everything is agreed on, everyone goes back to their daily routine forgetting about Yuki's 22nd birthday. The Witch Princess jumps around with joy as she sees her plan was a success.

"Ha ha! Look at Yuki. I have never seen him this frustrated before. I bet it must be a pain taking care of a child at your age. But don't worry, this aggravation is only beginning. And then later on, the real torment will begin!"