The Mother of Kotori was astonished to see before her the man that once proposed to her long ago. This astonishment was met with an equal amount of happiness, yet at the same time anger from the woman. She had so much to say but couldn't manage to form the words needed to express her feelings. It was then that the man broke the silence.

"I see you are doing well." Art remained completely calm, his face betrayed no emotion whatsoever.

"Art… where have you been all this time? I just… I don't know what to say…" Kuroka just can't find the words to express her conflicting emotions.

"I know I have a lot to explain, but all I can say for now is...I am back, honey" he replied. At that moment all of Kuroka's conflicting emotions seemed to disappear as she then went and gave her husband a hug.

"I've… I've missed you so much…" Kuroka said as she cried tears of joy getting to see her husband again after so long.

"It's been some time...15 years or so, right?" He said hugging his wife back.

"A little less, but yes…" Kuroka replied.

He let go of her. "How have you been? I see you've become a teacher." He turned to the others in the room. "If it's not too much to ask, may I move with my wife here to another place to talk?"

"Sure…" Someone replied. The two then headed for a classroom that was now currently empty since it was lunch break.

"Art there's something important you need to know that happened while I was gone," Kuroka said with a now serious face.

"I mean, I see what went on with your life." He replied. "To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if-"

"We have a daughter!" Kuroka said.

Art stopped speaking. True, he did see the girl at the entrance and smiled towards her, but he thought Kuroka had gotten remarried or something. "Pardon me?" He said.

"I never got the chance to tell you before you left, but I was pregnant. Her name is Kotori, by the way. I named her that because of all the birds that surrounded us when you proposed to me"

"..." Poor guy was still processing everything. "Again, pardon me?"

"If you didn't leave when you did or if you gave me some way to contact you then I would have told you sooner. Don't worry though, she's happy as can be! She doesn't know about you though because I was always hoping that you would come back eventually. I'm sure you can understand why I didn't tell her you were traveling. I would never answer her questions about it so she gave up asking years ago. I think she just assumes you're dead." Kuroka explained.

Art took a deep breath, then tried to explain himself. He had a reason for leaving and not saying anything, and it was a damn good one. Kuroka has no idea about the stuff he's been doing all over the world. "Firstly, there is a reason I did not leave any way of contact behind, which I will explain. Secondly, I didn't know you were pregnant - Heck! I could've sworn I pulled out on time! - but even if I knew things wouldn't have changed much. Lastly, I HAVE A DAUGHTER?!"

"Truthfully, I am a bit mad about you being gone all this time, but that isn't important right now. You need to see your daughter. The last year of her life has been extremely hard with the adventures she's gone on with a boy called Yuma." Kuroka said.

"Alright, alright...But this is going to be extremely awkward. Got anywhere where we can make this more private?" Art asked.

"Yes. Give me a second." Kuroka then grabbed her cell phone and dialed Kotori's number.

"Hmmm? Hold on guys, I'm getting a call from… mom?" Kotori said as she grabbed her cell phone and answered. "Mom, is something wrong?" She asked.

"No, honey. Just promise to come home straight after school, ok? No questions until then" Kuroka said.

"Alright, I guess… I promise I will." Kotori replied. Kuroka then hung up the phone.

"This ought to be...interesting." Art muttered. "Well, I better leave you to your work then. I will go prepare myself." He said, then the issue came to Kuroka's mind; where is he staying?

"Art, if you have nowhere to go, why not stay at my place? Unless you already have somewhere else arranged." Kuroka said.

"Truth be told, I do not. I was going to hunt for one, but I guess that since you are offering…" He said, then he opened the door. "I will be waiting." He left, leaving Kuroka to think over the events that went down. Her husband was back, and he still had his good looks to him.

The school day then came to an end but Kotori has to explain to Yuma and the others that she was going straight home at her mother's request. Once she arrived back home, she noticed that there was an extra car parked in front of the house.

There was also a nice smell coming from inside. Strange, she didn't know this dish. It was obviously food, but she had no idea what could smell like this.

"Mom! I'm home just like you asked! What did you want to talk… about?" Kotori walked into the living room and saw a man that she had never seen before. She assumed that this person is who the car belonged to.

Apparently, they've cooked dinner, and her mother was strangely enough pretty close to him, hugging him from behind with her arms around his chest as they were standing up in the living room. Nothing obscene was ongoing, thankfully, but it was still weird seeing this scene unfold. "Oh…" Art said.

Truth the bold, Kuroka was just doing something she remembered he enjoyed. Some people put their hands on the eyes, but Kuroka remembered how he would always slide them down around him. She took the chance to do it whilst he was setting the table, hence why he still had a plate in hand when Kotori walked in.

"Um… mom who is this man? Is he your new boyfriend or something?" Kotori asked as this was the only conclusion she could come to.

Her mother let go of Art, and then her gaze fell on her daughter. Art let out a small whistle and tried to slip into the kitchen again, but Kuroka grabbed him by his earring. "Ouch, ouch, ouch." He whined a bit, then Kuroka gave him a sharp look. He knew what he had to do. "Alright…"

"Hello… my name is Kotori. It's a pleasure to meet you." She bowed in respect.

"Sweetie, I have something important to tell you," Kuroka stated with a now serious look on her face.

"Important? What is it?" Kotori responded curiously.

"Well, young lady- ouch!" Once again, Kuroka had to set him straight. This time she jabbed him in the ribs. "Kotori…" He corrected himself. "Your mother and I have known each other since we were young, and...Should I really go through with it, Kuroka?" He asked, addressing her by name.

"Yes. Tell her the truth. She needs to know that you're her dad- oops…" Kuroka realized as she accidentally said it herself.

Kotori looked at her mother for a second, then she saw Art sigh. "Good one, Kuroka. I see time has not fixed your share of bad habits, dear."

"Mom… did you just say… dad?" Kotori asked as she wanted to make sure she heard correctly.

"Yes, sweetie… this man… he's your biological father…" Kuroka replied.

Kotori was now in an emotional state similar to what her mother was in earlier but on a much higher level. Why? Why did her supposed father show up now? For a second she wanted to be happy but the rage and shock took over. And for the first time in her life, Kotori was completely infuriated. One minute of silence had passed but the look on Kotori's face showed exactly what she was thinking. A feeling of extreme shock and rage.

"So… I was lied to all this time… why? WHY?! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME I HAD A FATHER AND WHY HAS HE SUDDENLY APPEARED NOW AFTER ALL THIS TIME?! DAMN IT… DAMN IT!" Kotori screamed as she then ran off to her room.

Kuroka sighed heavily at this, whilst Art remained stoic. "I'm sorry for her, I'm sure this must be-"

"No." Art said, cutting her off. "I should be the one to apologize. It is time for a well-deserved explanation to both of you as to why exactly I left. When you hear it, I bet you will scold me. But I am telling you, it was both the worst and best thing that ever happened to me." He said.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Let's go to her room, see how's she holding up first." He said and began walking to Kotori's room, Kuroka leading him up to it until they arrived in front of the door. He listened in, hearing sobs and muttered behind the door. She was angry and had the right to be.

Art was still not sure how her mother took the news so much better of his return. Heck, he expected her to have divorced him long ago. But he found out earlier that they are still married. Art knocked on the door to Kotori's room.

"What?! Go away! I don't wanna speak right now!" Kotori shouted behind the door.

"Sweetie, please open the door so we can talk. I know that you're mad, but please understand that there's a reason for all this. Just give us a chance to speak." Kuroka pleaded.

"What explanation could you have for lying to me all these years?! I almost feel like my life is a lie now!" Kotori shouted.

Art sighed. "Keep her busy." He said as he made his way outside and looked up, seeing the window to her room luckily opened. He smirked and looked around, making his course of action. He jumped and grabbed on to the edge, then almost too easily climbed all the way up. "There you go." He said as he jumped into her room from the window.

Kotori's anger temporarily left her as she was in shock at what she had just witnessed. "Just how did you do that?!" She asked. This was the first time she saw someone other than Cathy make those sorts of climbs.

"Experience and training, girl." He replied. "But on the other note, please open the door so your mother can come in as well and we can talk about this. I can explain why I had to scram, but it is a long story."

"You actually went so far as to climb into my room just to explain your story to me? Fine… I'll listen…" Kotori said as she tried to keep her anger in check. She then opened the door to her room for her mother to enter.

"Thank you, sweetie. I promise you won't regret this." Kuroka tried to say assuringly.

The 2 ladies sat on the bed, Art in front of them standing. He looked rather stressed, but a sigh later, he started to talk. "So it all began shortly after I graduated. I was always a wild card, as your mother can confirm, but I also had a bad habit of getting into trouble."

"I do recall those times, yes. "Kuroka said. "Although, I do also remember you outsmarting most of them"

"Most. Bullies never learned, really, which allowed me to trick them and escape from most of them. The smarter ones gave me trouble, but they were dealt with as well at times." Art continued. "But that is irrelevant. After I graduated, I ended up with the wrong people, and before I knew it I owed money to pretty bad scum."

"Wait, what?!" Even Kuroka reacted, connecting the dots. "So the reason you were in the hospital back then, the reason you had an accident-"

"They cut my breaks on the car." Art said. "But I survived, then you came to visit me in the hospital. I had no actual insurance, and you were so willing to help, I suggested the legal marriage. It allowed you to use your insurance for my treatment."

"So you used her?" Kotori asked, making Art flinch.

"He did, at first." Then her mother continued. "To be fair, what followed was not our plan." She blushed recalling those days.

"Indeed." Art smirked. "I and your mother spend some time after, the goons who were after thinking they managed to off me. We fell in love, and one night I lead her to the bedroom where I unbuttoned her-"

"CAN YOU NOT TELL THE STORY OF MY CONCEPTION?!" Kotori interjected, causing Art to laugh, her mother having an irritated pout.

"Back to the main topic then…" His smile faded. "The guys who wanted me dead got wind that I was still kicking, so I had to leave."

Now it made sense. Art left to protect her. Kuroka's eyes went wide. "I ran to the USA where I tried getting various jobs, and I eventually opened my own business. I managed to move across the globe quite a bit while keeping that steady income afloat, and then I noticed; it was growing. My business, which was originally just a trick to make money for traveling expenses, was producing more and more profit as time went by. By the time I had more than enough to pay the debt, I also amassed more than enough influence to get those guys out of the way."

"To this day, they do not know who locked them up" He chuckled. "Quite proud of that one. They deserved it. But after a few months, I remembered about you, Kuroka, so I returned to Heartland hoping to find you living a good life with a loving husband instead of a no-good like me." He looked at Kotori, placing a warm smile on his own lips. "But fate plays weird games."

"In insight, if I hadn't gone into debt, you wouldn't be here today, Kotori." He finished.

"Wow… I honestly had no idea that my father could be this kind of person… I'm sorry about getting mad before… I was wrong…" Kotori said as her anger fully slipped away.

"You needn't be. I still ran and whatnot." Art said. "But I am back, aren't I? And with a successful business no less, with a good profit of 22 Million USA dollars per year for my pocket." He finished.

"... THAT'S A LOT OF MONEY!" Both girls shouted.

"What can I say? Fate smiled on me" He replied.

"Anyway, sweetie, shouldn't you hug him? He is your dad after all. I know he's an idiot but I'm sure you can tell by now that he means well." Kuroka said.

"Oi!" Art shouted.

It was then that Kotori realized the situation. She now has officially met her father and he has said that he's going to stay. Her feelings then erupted like a volcano, like before, except this time it was with happiness.

"D…Dad!" Kotori said as she then leaped over and hugged her father for the first time. Somewhere deep in her heart, a feeling of loneliness of not having a dad that she had long hid from the world was finally filled.