Chapter 6

Spring 21, 2003

After the events of the day before, the girls pay a visit to Doctor Hardy's office to have a maternity test performed to see if one of them might be Choco's mother. They don't give a clear reason why they want it done, so Doctor Hardy protested against the plan to perform it. Lumina changes his mind by donating a heavy sum of money to his office. He then takes a blood sample from each girl and Choco's sample over to Mineral Town where the test can be performed.

All five girls wait patiently for the results with anticipation. They all believe that the results might determine which one of them will get to marry Yuki in the near future. As they wait, they all chat about the possible results, and what they plan to do when they discover who is Choco's mother. Sometimes they would chat peacefully, other times they would get frustrated and argue.

After eight hours of waiting, Doctor Hardy finally arrives back at his office with five folders, each of them containing one individual result for each girl. He hands the results to each girl then sits on his desk to wait for their reaction. They all open the folders and examines the contents. Muffy was very confident before she opened the folder, but her spirit shatters when she sees the huge 'negative' print on the results.

“Negative? You mean that I am not Choco's mother?” asked Muffy. “There has to be some sort of mistake!”

Doctor hardy is not surprised by Muffy's reaction. “The test is 99.9% accurate. I think I also mentioned that to Yuki.” said Doctor hardy while signing some paperwork.

Muffy turns to the other girls and demands, “Okay, who is it!? Which one of you got a positive result!?”

After lowering her test results and sighing, Nami says, “Not me, I came out negative too.”

Celia continues, “Not me either.”

Flora closes the folder and says, “My test says that I have a zero percent probability that I am her mother. What a disappointment, I was so sure that I was.”

Muffy, Nami, Celia, and Flora looks over to Lumina. She has a very shocked look on her face which made the other girls nervous. Muffy walks up to her and demands, “Lumina, what are your test results?! Are you Choco's mother or not?!”

Lumina cries as she lowers her folder and says, “I am not Choco's mother either. . .”

“Honestly.” said Doctor Hardy. “What possessed you girls to believe that any of you could be Choco's mother. Giving the situation, it would be clear that none of you are without taking a test.”

“MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!!!” yelled all five girls. After tossing the test results on his desk, they all leave the clinic. After walking around the valley for a moment, they all find themselves in front of Yuki's farm. All they did was stare at it and sigh.

“Does this mean that Yuki will not get married with any of us?” asked Celia.

“Don't be ridiculous!” yelled Muffy. “Just because Daryl said that she is from the future, that doesn't make it true. We only took the test to be sure.”

“But that still means that there is another girl out there who is Choco's mother. And the threat that she'll come to the valley and take both Choco and Yuki away still exists,” said Flora.

“Yuki isn't going anywhere!” yelled Muffy.

Nami nods and says, “If one of us can marry him before she comes around, there isn't anything Choco's mother can ever do to take him away. Choco can decide on her own which parent she wants to live with. But since she's already here, she'll most likely stay with Yuki.”

Lumina asks, “But Yuki doesn't want to get married to anyone. How will we change his mind before it's too late?”

“Choco of course!” said Flora. “We all know that Yuki is having trouble taking care of her on his own. If one of us can prove that she can be the best mother figure for Choco, I'm sure that Yuki will change his mind.”

“But what if Yuki still doesn't want to get married?” asked Lumina.

Flora continues, “If Yuki doesn't want to marry any of us, then there is no way that he'll want to marry Choco's mother either. There isn't anything to worry about, in the end it's going to be either one of us or nobody at all.” All the girls nods and cheer. Believing that Choco is going to be the only link they have to get into the marriage bed, they all prepare their plans to court Yuki through his daughter.

Spring 22, 2003

At around noon, all five girls arrive at Yuki's farm. Each one of them is holding a gift for Choco hiding behind their backs. They sigh nervously, they had planned to come individually. But since all the girls want to impress Yuki as quickly as possible, they all decide to make this a group event. So they all march to the house lined up like soldiers. Closer and closer they move to the house. Their hearts are beating faster, almost like if they are about to enter war. However as they get close to the house, they hear a huge explosion coming from the inside of the house. They can smell smoke from the outside. Thinking the worst has happened, they all run inside the house to check on them.

The kitchen has a huge cloud of smoke coming from the oven. Yuki rushes out of his bedroom and runs into the kitchen without noticing that he has visitors. Choco is already in the kitchen wearing oven mittens holding a charred cake that she pulled out of the oven.

“What happened here!” yelled Yuki.

Choco raises her failed cooking attempt and says, “I just wanted some chocolate cake daddy. But I think I made a mistake, and the oven blew up.”

“I thought I told you yesterday that you are not old enough to use the oven!” yelled Yuki. He checks the condition of the kitchen, everything is either damaged from the explosion or covered in black soot. He rubs his aching head and says, “Do you have any idea what this is going to cost me? Now I'm going to need a whole new kitchen, and I can't cook anything until then!”

The five girls look at one another and smile. Seeing that this is a perfect opportunity to impress Yuki, they decide to take advantage of the situation. They all take a deep breath, and sing, “Hey Yuki!”

Yuki and Choco look over to the other girls hanging out at their front door. Yuki feels embarrassed because of the condition of the kitchen. The girls smile making him feel nervous. He couldn't tell if they wanted to talk to him or eat him. “Hi, what can I do for you?” asked Yuki.

Muffy steps forward and asks, “Hey, you don't mind if we borrow Choco for the day, do you? We just want to play with her, if that's okay?”

Yuki scratches the back of his head nervously. After what happened at the hot springs, he thought for sure that they didn't want to have anything to do with her anymore. But now that they all have come to ask to play with Choco, he doesn’t know what to say. “I don't mind, but it's really up to Choco.” Yuki looks at Choco and asks, “Do you want to play with them?”

Choco grabs on to Yuki's arm and whines, “No daddy! Those ladies are too boring! I wanna stay here and have fun with you!”

The five girls already knew she would say that and came prepared. So they all take their gifts from behind their backs and present them. Then they all sing, “We have chocolates!!”

Choco quickly lets go of her father's arm, and runs over to her bedroom where she grabs her mini rucksack full of toys. She then runs to the women and yells, “Daddy! I'm gong to play with the ladies! See you later!” Then they all leave the house leaving Yuki behind.

Yuki looks at the mess that was left behind for him to clean up. Rather than complaining, he gets out his usual cleaning tools and starts cleaning up. He also leaves the TV on to the shopping channel in case he finds any good deals of cooking tools he could not salvage.

Close to the pond near the beach, Choco and the other women set up a blanket where she may eat her chocolates. The other women watches in astonishment as Choco devours all of the chocolates given to her.

“I know she's a kid, but she eats a lot of chocolate!” said Muffy. “I can't believe she's eating five days worth of chocolate all by herself, and she doesn't even look nearly full. Even Yuki can't eat nearly that many chocolates in one sitting.”

Nami says, “Considering the situation with Choco, everything about her is amazing. Or just plain weird.”

Twenty minutes later, Choco finally finish eating all of hergifts. All the girls watch in shock as she licks her fingers. A normal child would have gotten sick from eating somuch candy, but Choco was fine and wanted more.

“I can't believe it!” yelled Lumina. “She ate all of it! That’s enough to put me in a coma, and she’s fine.”

Choco gets up and stretches her arms. “Okay then, time to play!” yelled Choco cheerfully.

All the girls smiles at her cute enthusiasm. Flora stands up an asks, “what game do you want to play?” Choco thinks for a moment. Looking through her rucksack full of toys, she pulls out six art pads. Since Choco likes to draw, Yuki bought her several art pads to prevent her from drawing on the walls. She gave a pad to each of the women, and one for herself.

“Let's have an art contest!” announced Choco. “Let's draw our most favorite thing in the whole wide world! Whoever draws the best wins!”

Everybody nods. Choco passes out some crayons and pencils to everyone, they all sit and start to draw. After about an hour later, Choco raises her drawing so that everyone can see. “I'm done! Look at what I drew! I drew a picture of daddy!” In the art pad, Choco drew a picture of a man wearing blue farming clothes, a blue hat, brown hair, and holding a pitch fork. She dances around as she yells, “Okay, its your turn! What did you draw!” All five women reveal what they drew. They are all drawings of Yuki. Lumina being the most skilled in art drew the best portrait. Everyone is amazed at the detail Lumina put into the drawing.

Afterwards, Choco decides that it is now time for something a little bit more physical. She pulls out the ball and her stuffed horse from her rucksack, and says, “I wanna play Horse ball now! Who wants to play with me!”

Everyone stares at her for a moment. Muffy asks, “How the heck does she fit all that in her rucksack?”

Nami answers, “Doesn't surprise me, you should see what Yuki can fit in his rucksack.”

Flora asks Choco, “How do you play Horse ball?”

Choco pulls out several crayons, Choco locates the closest building. She then draws a dart board on the wall. As she draws, every one watches her speechlessly. Lumina asks, “Should we be allowing her to do this?”

Celia answers, “I guess as long as we clean it up, there should be no problem.”

After Choco finishes, she points at the wall with her crayon and says, “Here are the rules! You hit the ball against the wall, and collect points. Whoever misses the ball loses! Since I am the only person who has a horse, the rest of you can use your hands!”

“And what are the point for?” asked Flora.

Choco thinks for a minute and responds, “I dunno. But it's a fun game! Uma-Kun invented it. Come on, let's play!”

Muffy steps forward and says, “I'll go first!”

Choco throws the ball up in the air, then hit it with her stuffed horse. The ball hits the center of the target, and flies to Muffy's direction. Muffy attempts to smack the ball, but completely misses it. “Um. . . I guess I lost?” Asked Muffy.

“Yeah, you kinda suck at this.” said Choco. The others laugh making Muffy blush.

She then points at Flora and says, “Okay lady, you're up!”

“Let me show you how it's done.” said Flora full of confidence. Choco throws the ball in the air, and hits it with her stuffed horse once again. As soon as it gets close to Flora, she yells and punches it as hard a possible. She punches the ball so hard that it bursts into pieces. Flora did not know what else to say other than, “Oops!”

Choco begins to sniffle and says, “you broke my ball! You big meanie, why did you do that!?” She then starts to cry loudly.

“You idiot! Look what you did!” yelled Muffy.

Flora kneels down, and rubs Choco's head trying to calm her down. “I'm sorry Choco, it was an accident. I'll buy you a new one I promise.” Choco then stops crying and nods sadly. Flora faces the other women and asks, “Where the hell is Van when we need him?”

“Van only comes to Forget-Me-Not valley on days that end in three or eight. So he should be coming around tomorrow.” answered Lumina.

Flora pulls out some chocolate from her pocket, and hands it to Choco. The chocolates puts Choco into a better mood. “I'll buy you a new ball tomorrow. Let's play something else for now.” Choco nods happily.

The five women continue to play for several hours with Choco. As each hour passes, the women only become even more exhausted, Choco still has plenty of energy to spare. At 6:00 PM, all the women are laying on the grass completely worn out. Muffy sits up and says, “Wow, this kid has energy! How does Yuki do this every day?”

“It's probably all the caffeine in the chocolates.” Nami said struggling to catch her breath.

Choco runs up to he crowd of exhausted women and demands, “Come on! It's not time to sleep yet! There's still 3 hours left before my bedtime! Let's play some more!”

“No more. . ,” said Flora raising the white flag. “I give up, I want to co back to the tent.”

Just then, Yuki walks by looking for everyone. From the road, he can see Choco yelling at the other girls. He walks up to them and yells, “Choco! It's time for dinner! Let's go!”

Hearing Yuki's voice gives all the girls strength to stand up again. Everyone waves and sings, “Hi Yuki!”

“Has Choco been giving you trouble?” asked Yuki.

Celia smiles and says, “Of course not! She's a little angel. We had a lot of fun today, isn't that right Choco?”

Choco nods cheerfully. Yuki is very surprised that the women has done well with Choco without asking for anything in return. Yuki smiles at them and says, “Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. See you all later!” He then walks back to the farm taking Choco with him. All the girls sigh happily as they watch him walk away.

“Yuki actually smiled at me! I knew it, he likes me!” cheered Celia.

“No way, he smiled at me!” snapped Nami.

Muffy interrupts, “This isn’t over. We still need a lot of work before any of us can steal Yuki's heart. Tomorrow, the battle continues.” Everybody nods, and then returns to their homes. As they all scatter, each of them starts to come up with their own plan. They are all working together to make Choco like them, but now they all plan to work individually to accomplish their goals.

Spring 23, 2003

At noon, Choco is in the kitchen eating some lunch that Yuki had made for her. As she eats, Flora pays a visit to Yuki's farm with a wrapped package hidden behind her back. She knocks on the door, and Yuki answers moments later. Yuki is surprised to see her at the farm, especially since she normally doesn't come over twice in a row.

“Is Choco here?” asked Flora.

Yuki nods and lets her in. Flora walks towards Choco with a suspicious smile pasted on her face. Choco stares at Flora and says, “Hi lady. What's up?”

Flora places the gift on the table. Choco pushes her lunch to the side and opens the box. Inside the box is a ball that is significantly larger than the one Choco had yesterday. Choco cheers and says, “Yay! A new ball! Thank you very much!”

Yuki approaches Flora and asks, “what happened to her old ball?”

Choco tries to answer, but Flora places a hand on her mouth and says, “We had a little accident yesterday, and the other one popped. But I volunteered to buy a new one. Isn’t that right?”

Yuki scratched his head and says, “Um, that's pretty nice of you. Thanks.” Flora laughs because Yuki has no idea that it was her who popped the old one.

Soon, Muffy walks into the house with a gift of her own hidden behind her back. “Hey Choco!” she called.

Choco runs to Muffy and asks, “Yes lady?”

“I have a little present for you!” said Muffy. She pulls out a stuffed bear from behind her back, and shows it to her. Choco stares it at oddly. The stuffed bear is brown in color with huge eyebrows. It's huge eyes looks creepy to Choco, and some patches can be found on it's arms and legs. “It's name is Daa-chan. Isn't he cute!”

“It looks kinda creepy,” answered Choco.

Then Celia walks into the house also carrying a present. Inside the box were flower seeds that are not usually sold in Forget-Me-Not-Valley. Then Nami walks in carrying a gift box of her own. Inside the box were artifacts that she had dug up from the digging site. She thanks everyone for their gifts, but she is more interested in getting chocolates than anything else. However, Lumina comes in last with a small child's size bicycle for Choco.

“Wow, Thank you lady!” cheered Choco trying to mount her brand new gift. However, Choco does not know how to ride a bicycle yet so she falls down. All the other women leer at Lumina angrily. Everyone else has only a limited amount of money, but Lumina lives in a huge mansion with more than enough wealth; which is an unfair advantage.

Muffy decides to take the initiative. She walks out of the house dragging Choco with her. “Come on Choco, let's play!”

“Hey, I want to play with her too!” said the other women. They all follow Choco and Muffy out of the farm and into the same place where they all played the day before.

Yuki watches them as they practically kidnap his daughter in front of his eyes. He can't tell if he should let them go or stop them. He just scratches his head, “I wonder how did they get so many days off? I could understand Nami, but the others?”

Everyone arrives at the pond near the beach again. Unlike the day before, Choco can feel the hostility in the air as each girl is now competing for her attention. This makes Choco feel slightly uncomfortable. Muffy squats to Choco's height and asks, “So, what do you want to play Choco?”

Before Choco is able to respond, Nami calls out to her. She points to the same wall that they played Horse ball the day before and says, “Let's play Horse ball Choco! I think I'll do quite well, and I promise I won't pop the ball!”

Flora then yells, “Choco! Want to play tag? I'm a good runner!”

Then Celia approaches Choco and says, “Want to play tic-tac-toe? I promise, I'll make it fun!”

Lumina yells, “Choco, how about a game of hide and seek? I bet you won't be able to find me!” Choco is confused that the number of games that the other women wants to play, each of them wanted to do something different.

Muffy on the other hand wanted to play with her all by herself, but the competition is getting a bit out of control. So Muffy grabs on Choco's arm and tells her, “Hey, want to go play in my room? We could do each other's hair, and talk about lots of things. It'll be fun!”

But as she starts to walk off with her, Nami grabs Choco's other arm and stops them. “Where do you think you're going with Choco, huh? I will not let you have her all to yourself.”

“It's none of your business, now let go of her!” demanded Muffy pulling on Choco’s arm.

“You let go of her you old bat!” yelled Nami yanking on Choco’s other arm.

“How dare you call me that you stubborn tomboy!” insulted Muffy.

“Stupid bar girl tramp!” continued Nami.

“Ugly shemale!” returned Muffy.

As they go back and forth insulting each other, they both pull onto Choco's arms in the opposite directions. Choco whined and cried, but Muffy and Nami were too busy fighting over her to notice. Lumina, Flora, and Celia try to stop the fighting and help Choco, but Muffy and Nami are too stubborn to stop.

“What is going on here!” yelled Yuki who followed the women not too long after leaving the farm. Muffy and Nami realizing what they are doing and stop fighting after hearing Yuki's voice. They then finally notice Choco crying, so they both release her. Choco wastes no time to run to Yuki, and hide behind his back.

“Daddy, daddy! Those ladies were mean to me!” cried Choco.

All the women look down in shame. They try so hard to make Choco like them, the only thing that they do is upset her. "I'm sorry, we just wanted you to like us.” said Nami.

Choco pulls her eyelid down and sticks her tongue out at them. She then holds Yuki's arm and says, “Daddy, why don't you play with me instead. We'll have so much fun like we used to before!”

Yuki stares at Choco and asks, “Like before? What are you talking about?”

“You know, when it was just you, me, and mommy together by the cherry blossom. Please, let's go back to that tree, and have fun!”

“What are you talking about? I don't know any tree, and I don't even remember us playing together! Let alone with your mother!” yelled Yuki.

As the conversation continues on, the other five women watches in shock. “Oh my god. It's just like Daryl said. Memories of a time that has not happened yet.” said Flora.

“Could it be true? Is Choco really from the future, and none of us will eventually marry Yuki?” continued Lumina.

All the women sigh, and walk away in shame. They all head over to the Blue Bar where they can drink away their troubles. After they are all seated, Griffin comes out of the back room to see who has come in. He is surprised to see Muffy and everyone else looking gloomy.

Griffin asks curiously, “What happened? Looks like the world is coming to an end.”

“Shut up and die!” everyone yelled together. Griffin feels that his presence is not needed, so he returns to the back room. All the girls sigh uncontrollably for a while.

Celia plays with a napkin as she says, “It's over then. In the future, Yuki will marry someone else, and move away to Atland. He'll leave us all behind as a bunch of single women who will grow old and die.”

Muffy slams her fist on the counter and says, “No way! We can't give up yet! I swear that I'll make Yuki mine, even if it's the last thing I do!”

“But we all know that it'll never happen.” said Flora. “There isn't anything we could do about it.”

Lumina sits up and declares, “you know what, I think Muffy is right! Maybe Choco really didn't come from the future. Maybe there is another explanation. But whatever that reason may be, even if there is a slight chance that Yuki will marry any of us, we still have to try!”

Nami stands up and yells, “You're right! I shouldn't give up, and neither should any of us! Who is with me!”

Everyone stands up and cheers loudly. The thought of losing Yuki to a strange woman is enough to tear their spirits apart. But the confidence they all give one another is enough to make them keep on going. As they sit and chat, they plan on their next attempt to impress Yuki. What will their next plan be?